Halo: Sangheili vs Humans
by A Avenger
Summary: It is the year 2562. The galaxy was peaceful after the horrible war that claimed so many lives ended. But when the humans supposedly sent a ship to suicide bomb Sanghelios, another war will ensue...
1. Chapter 1

**Halo: Sangheili vs Humans**

**Part 1:Life on Sanghelios**

As a new day dawned on Sanghelios, war veteran Hrauk 'Faldaree opened his eyes. Immediately, terrible memories flooded him. The Human-Covenant War, the death of his mate, and many horrifying things. But, soon after, memories of great joy filled his mind. His two sons and one, his survival of the Human-Covenant War ten years ago. He stretched and got out of bed. He looked at what a Human would have called a clock and saw that the time was 7.29 in the morning. _Too early for me to be walking around the house._ He thought to himself. The male Sangheili closed his eyes and fell asleep. However, only a few moments later, the ground beneath him rumbled. He sat up and looked out of the window. It was a UNSC Frigate, getting closer and closer to the planet. Finally, it crashed about a hundred miles from their current position. At first, he was confused. The sounds of screaming and yelling. Seeing the flames all the way from here. But he knew what this meant. It meant war. But why? The Humans are outnumbered, yet they destroy the peace treaty. Something was amiss, but nevertheless, the Sangheili would accept this challenge.

**5 Years Later**

12 year old Sangheili, Vrawl 'Faldaree, couldn't say he hated his daily exercises, yet sometimes, he wished that he could have a one day off from the Physical Exercises. _After all, _He thought to himself, _I'm just a 13 year old, I can't expect to do too much._ "Something bothering you?" T'ras Q'urone asked. "It's nothing." Vrawl replied. T'ras had been his best friend since young, and now, they were on their way back from their Physical Exercise. He made a left turn and looked at the scenery. There was nothing much to expect from the rural areas of the city. Vrawl felt a kind of pity for the Sangheili living here. As they made a right turn, a fist slammed into T'ras's face hard.

He looked to where the fist came from and saw seven full grown Sangheili. _Damn. It's one of the local gangs._ "You guys from the richer part of town right?" the leader of the gang asked. Neither Vrawl nor T'ras replied as Vrawl helped his friend up. "Don't act dumb. We've been watching you. We know you have money in your pockets. Hand them over."._ Oh, so their after our money. _Vrawl thought. He was ready to defend himself but hesitated. He was still exhausted from his exercise and now he still had to fight full grown Sangheili. _To win, I have to attack first, hard and fast._ His fist shot up and caught the first Sangheili in the face, leaving his enemy's lower mandibles at an odd angle. He looked to his left and found T'ras already handling three gang members. _That means I have to fight another three._ He thought. Not a second had passed before he was on the floor from a kick directed at his back. Vrawl tried to get up but one Sangheili stepped on his head, and attempted to crush him. A howl of pain escaped Vrawl's mouth and he managed to slide his head to one side before his head was crushed.

He stood and delivered a hard blow to the neck of the Sangheili who had tried to crush his head. He turned to look at T'ras and was amazed to see he had crippled one of his assailants. But while looking at his friend, the air was knocked out of him as a powerful strike hit his stomach. He sank to his knees. Two Sangheili held his arms so that he couldn't strike his enemies. He looked up, and before he could take in anything, a fist slammed into the side of his head. The only reason he did not hit the ground was because of the two Sangheili holding him in place. A kick was then delivered to his ribs. Then the Sangheili who had beaten him so badly, took a thick sheet of wood, and smashed it into his ribs so hard, not only did he hear a cracking sound from his ribs and his own scream of agony, but the sheet of wood was broken in half. This time, the two Sangheili who had been holding him in place dropped him, and walked slowly towards a poor T'ras, who was badly beaten by his two attackers, yet kept fighting. As Vrawl watched helplessly, he smelt burning flesh. He saw that a plasma burn appeared on one of his assailant's back. Then two Elite minors and one major stepped into his view. Assured that he would be safe, unconsciousness took over.

The news came as a shock but to see the state of his second born son was worse. Hrauk 'Faldaree had seen much worse on the battlefield. He had fought alongside the Arbiter against Tartaraus, Cheiftain of the Brutes, and saw one Sangheili push a younger one away to save the young Sangheili's life, but at the cost of his own. But seeing his son like this made him feel like weeping. He sat down on a chair and decided that maybe he would wait for him to regain consciousness. But sleep claimed him first.

Vrawl's eyes opened. He had no idea how long he was out. Seeing his father asleep on a chair next to his bed, he could clearly see an old scar of war the former General had. Vrawl was always disgusted with the idea of killing another as a soldier. But after seeing the Sangheili Major and minors fighting valiantly for the good of all, he had decided that that would be his ambition, to join the army and kill the Humans who had waged war on Sanghelios.

**Author's Note: Yes, I know, quite a short part. But this is my first time writing so don't be too hard on me. I was thinking on writing this but from the Human's perspective but I found that we all know what is going on in a human's mind so I decided to write from the perspective of a **_Sangheili,_** an alien. So I hope you all enjoy.**


	2. Chapter 2

Part 2

Boot Camp

"Move faster! You'd all probably be dead if the Humans were really chasing you!" the Elite Major in crimson armor shouted. 4 years has passed since Vrawl 'Faldaree was released from the hospital and he signed up for this boot camp 1 standard year ago. His foot struck something hard and he tripped. _Darn. Shouldn't have thought too much. _He scrambled to his feet and sprinted across the last few meters of the obstacle course.

The Major gave them a short break after everyone was done with the obstacle course.

"I want you all to be at attention by the time your break is up. Understood?"

The Major asked.

"Yes Major!" the other trainees replied.

Vrawl looked around for his friend, T'ras Q'urone. As soon as they signed up, they were grouped into different patrols. His patrol happened to be different from his childhood friend.

"Hey. You okay?"

Vrawl turned to look at the source of the voice.

"It's nothing Grath. Just thinking."

Grath Ju'ldraas was his best friend in his patrol. Yes, he knew all the men of his 6 Sangheili strong patrol but he looked to Grath as a role model. Grath came from a noble family, yet all his life he had never used his nobility to even the slightest advantage. He even joined the special-ops training program. Yes, this was the Spec-Ops Boot Camp.

"Everybody, the Major is coming in 1 minute, quickly, get to attention!" an anonymous Sangheili shouted.

When the Major came back, his facial expressions showed visible distress. Vrawl wondered what was the cause.

"As we all know, even before the war with the Humans re-emerged, The Arbiter and his fleet have been going around the universe searching for, and destroying any remaining Halos he can find. And we are all also aware that a fleet of Humans were assigned to help him."

Panic struck Vrawl. Was the Arbiter dead? If so, the snobby High Sangheili Council would continue ruling.

"We have received a distress signal from one of the Halos several weeks ago, the first signal made to us since the Humans and our brothers, on the 2nd Installation, opened fire at each other more than 5 years ago. The first few batches of Spec-Ops we sent did not come back. So, we deduced that strength lies in numbers, at least for this mission, and we are sending **ALL** Spec-Ops to Installation 2. Though it is sudden, this mission has to be a success. Any questions?"

Immediately, many hands raised simultaneously.

One asked:"When do we go?"

"In 12 standard hours"

Another asked:"Will we be rearranged into new patrols?"

"Yes"

Another piped up:"What are we gonn-"

"That will be enough questions!" the Major shouted.

"Think through your question and find if it is important or not. If it is, come to my office later." And with that, he left.

The smell of plasma discharge filled the air. The practice room was filled with Spec-Ops trainees checking their aim. Vrawl had always been an accurate soldier. Though he should be practicing, he thought he'd be better off watching Grath practice.

"Did you see that? I scored 10 points for that shot alone!" Grath exclaimed.

Vrawl smiled to himself. 10 points, though the maximum number, was not a hard thing to get. _Well, at least for myself._ There was still 7 standard hours left. He rest his head back and let his thoughts drift off. _Man, I haven't seen T'ras for quite some time now. I don't even remember his patrol. But we'll all get our patrols changed anyway. I wonder what fighting the Humans will be like? Maybe I should have asked my dad. He fought them in the war._

**"ATTENTION ALL SPECIAL OPERATIONS SANGHEILI. WAIT OUTSIDE THE DROPSHIP BAY NOW. I REPEAT, ALL SPECIAL OPERATIONS SANGHEILI, PLEASE WAIT OUTSIDE THE DROPSHIP BAY."**

Vrawl awakened from his short sleep. He looked around. The practice range was virtually empty and it seems Grath left without him. _He probably didn't wanna wake me up._ Vrawl thought as he rushed into the Dropship bay.

As Vrawl stood at attention, the Major was reading the names of who belonged in whose patrol. "Vrawl! Grath! Kra'art! Sul'art! T'ras! You have been assigned to Shadow Patrol, recognized as the best Patrol amongst all present Patrols.". Vrawl didn't catch the rest of the briefing. T'ras? Here? Finally after spending so much time away from T'ras, Vrawl could finally see him again!

"T'rovile is on charge of Dark Patrol and Kra'art is the leader of Shadow Patrol. Ok that's it, everyone in the phantom!" the Major shouted.

Vrawl had already been expecting the worst, but what will happen on Halo would be worse than Hell.


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note: Sorry this took a long time to complete, I had to get a new computer because of corrupted data in my old one so I had to re-write everything.**

**Part 3**

Halo

Thousands of stars twinkled and shone in the darkness of space. Vrawl 'Faldaree looked out of the windows in his patrol's temporary quarters. _What an amazing spectacle. I wonder why Fleet Commanders always rant on and on about space being the mother of death._

Suddenly Vrawl Heard the door opening and T'ras Q'urone walked in. Vrawl had already gotten re-acquainted with T'ras while the phantom they were on boarded a bigger ship which could easily compensate all of the Spec-Ops Elites, plus an extra shooting range.

"The whole of Shadow Patrol and the rest of the patrols are in the shooting range having a competition." T'ras smirked and continued "We may need some help.".

Vrawl smiled. "Well, I haven't seen the number of points each member in our patrol has contributed, but I can predict that it's somehow your fault we're losing." Vrawl got up and started walking to the shooting range.

Shadow Patrol stood rigidly at attention while their Patrol Leader, Kra'art, was briefing them on what to do when they land.

"Before I start, I will need a sub-commander, someone who is second in command. I've thought through this and then I realized that we also needed positions for everybody." Kra'art took out a small pad and started to read out names. "T'ras Q'urone, you are the sub-commander. Vrawl 'Faldaree, you will be the sniper, I heard your aim was pretty good. Grath Ju'ldraas, you will be the demolitions expert and finally, Sul'art, you will be the Close-Quarter-Combat, or CQC expert, dismissed.".

With that, all of us left the room to go back to do what we were doing earlier.

Vrawl, Grath and T'ras walked back to the shooting range, all the while chatting about their new positions and about how it fitted them perfectly. "I always loved explosives," Grath said. "But for that very reason no one let me carry even a grenade bucket boot camp!".

Vrawl chuckled. He remembered how disappointed Grath was when their then patrol commander forbade him from touching anything explosive. And he also remembered the punch Grath gave his poor shoulder when he started laughing.

Suddenly an alarm rang. Vrawl, T'ras and Grath looked up.

**EVERYBODY, ETA TO HALO IN 2 STANDARD HOURS, I REPEAT, 2 HOURS. CHANGE INTO YOUR ARMOR AND EQUIP YOURSELVES. PATROL LEADERS, MAKE SURE THAT YOUR PATROLS ARE READY TO BE DROPPED OFF IN 1 AND A HALF HOURS.I REPEAT, ONE AND A HALF HOURS.**

Getting changed into armor was not easy. Vrawl fumbled with his black chest plate, trying to make it stay one. finally, it stayed on him and he tested the energy shields and camouflage abilities of the Spec-Ops armor. Vrawl ran to the weapons locker to arm himself.

When Vrawl got to the weapons locker, most of the other patrols were already done equipping themselves. _I sure am slow in putting on my armor. _Vrawl quickly took a standard Plasma Rifle and attached it to his waist. As per his position in his patrol. He took a Carbine Rifle, slung it on his back, and for his primary weapon, took a Beam Rifle. _So, when I need to go up close and personal, I either take out my plasma rifle, or I can sling my Beam Rifle on my back, while simultaneously taking out my Carbine Rifle._

Vrawl took out a satchel of plasma grenades and hung it on the other side of his waist. Vrawl checked the timer on his HUD. Another half an hour. "I better get going." Vrawl said softly to himself and hurried out of the weapons locker and made his way to the pods.

"Looks like there was one big battle here." Kra'art said as he kicked over a human marine had landed on Halo not too long ago, and coincidentally, they landed on an old battleground. Kra'art's built in helmet radio started beeping. Kra'art pressed a button on his helmet. "Report." Kra'art said through the radio.

"No dead bodies identified as belonging to the Arbiter, sir!" Vrawl reported.

"Well, that is good and bad. At least we know he is alive, but we don't know where he is, continue searching." Kra'art replied.

"Affirmative.".

Suddenly, a half destroyed wall on his right exploded.

Instinctively, Kra'art aimed his plasma rifle to the right. But suddenly, bullets shot his rifle out of his hand. With the continuous rain of bullets striking him, his energy shield flickered out and Kra'art was forced to take cover. One of the humans shouted "you bastard traitors, come out so we can kill you!". Kra'art growled at the insult and jumped out of cover, taking a stunned human by the throat and ripped half of his face off. Bad move. a hidden sniper shot Kra'art in the leg, taking out his shields once more. the remaining human in front of him opened fire. Kra'art was quick enough to dodge most of the bullets, but was hit by one in the shoulder. Kra'art used his remaining good arm to un-latch his plasma pistol and shot an overcharged plasma bolt at the marine's face, burning it. Kra'art radioed the rest of his troops. "There are hostiles in this are, I've taken them out but there is still a sniper. The rest of you, stay put, Vrawl, locate the sniper and kill him!".

"Affirmative,I'm trying to locate the target…..Got him!" Vrawl said through the radio.

"Good job." Kra'art said. "Meet the other patrols in the rendezvous point. I'll be checking on something for a minute.".

Vrawl signalled an affirmative, then terminated the transmission. Kra'art walked over to the dead marines. _What did they mean by 'you bastard traitors'? It was THEM who attacked us in the first place right? Or may be they were just confused. They were stuck with the Arbiter during the attack on Sanghelios, so when we told the Arbiter about it, the Arbiter probably opened fire on the humans, thus thinking we betrayed them._ Kra'art sighed softly. He kicked the dead marine's face lightly. But suddenly, static filled the air. For a moment, nothing else happened, but suddenly, voices filled the air. "Are you there Recon 2, are you there? Have you found any ammo or new bases for us to inhabit? Are you there Recon 2?". Kra'art immediately turned on his helmet's voice recorder and recorded the radio transmission.

"We can't hold off these monstrosities any longer. We need to move, NOW. If you do not come back by 3 hours, we will be evacuating, without you. Meet us back at base, we are 33 degrees north of where you are. Is tha-….wait, hold transmission, I think there is, OH MY GOD THEY'RE HERE, SHIT, EVACUATE NOW!".

Then the transmission ended.


	4. Chapter 4

**Part 4:The Calm Before The Storm**

"Kra'art should be here by now.".

Vrawl 'Faldaree idly fumbled with his Beam Rifle, awaiting for Shadow Patrol's leader to come back. Vrawl looked up at the Ring's artificial sky and sighed. Several grumbles spread throughout the other patrols as they awaited Kra'art's return.

"Are you even sure he's coming back?" lamented an anonymous Sangheili warrior.

As soon as the Sangheili said that, Kra'art appeared as if out of nowhere, jogging with much visible effort, due to his shoulder injury, towards them. He stopped a good meter away from the rest of the Sangheili Spec-Ops, and gestured to Shadow Patrol.

"Shadow Patrol, follow me back to the dropship, I have something which interests the Ship Master." The members of Shadow Patrol nodded and started jogging at a relaxed pace towards a Phantom dropship waiting several hundred meters away.

Gesturing to the other patrols, Kra'art said "The rest of you are to continue with your duties by order of the Ship Master.". And with that, Kra'art rejoined his squad, jogging at a moderate speed.

T'ras Q'urone pushed his way through a group of technicians. He stepped on the anti-gravity lift, and along with his fellow patrol members, ascended into the Phantom dropship. The interior of the Phantom was dark, with little light source to illuminate the darkness. T'ras watched in silence as Kra'art walked over to the pilot seat, and exchanged a few words with the pilot, and returned to the rest of the Patrol.

"I've told the pilot to standby at the hangar of the ship when we arrive. I'll have a short meeting with the Ship Master, and then you all will be summoned to be briefed. But you will have to wait here while I am conversing with the Ship Master." the leader of Shadow Patrol said over the hum of the Phantom's engines as it rose and slowly started to fly towards the ship in Halo's low orbit.

Curious as to why the sudden change of plan occurred, T'ras whispered over to Grath Jul'daree "Why are we all of a sudden going back? I heard we would be stationed down there for about at least a week to search, before reporting back.".

"Well, i don't know, I'm just as confused as you are. Why don't you ask Kra'art yourself?"/

At the sound of his name being said, Kra'art bent over to the two young Sangheili. "Yes? I do believe somebody mentioned me in this conversation?".

Grath hesitated to say anything, but T'ras piped up. "Sir, if I may know, why are we heading back? Shouldn't we have built camp back there, and stayed down there for at least a week, surveying and looking for any hint of The Arbiter's survival?".

Kra'art let out an annoyed, but soft growl. "Have I not said that I have found something that will interest the Ship Master?".

T'ras did his best to keep any hint of annoyance out of his voice, but didn't manage to restrain a sigh. "Yes, I know that, but, specifically, what you have found that is of such pressing concern, that we have to go back up to report directly to the Ship Master, instead of talking this over through radio?".

Kra'art shook his head. "This does not concern you yet.". The Phantom veered slightly to the left as the pilot docked in the hangar of the Covenant ship orbiting Halo's low orbit. "Stay here, and when we call upon you, come to the Bridge. Only then will you know what this pressing matter is.

With that, Kra'art turned around and walked at a leisurely pace out of the hangar and up a grav-lift. T'ras sighed and allowed himself to doze off.

Su'lart awoke from a beeping on his helmet. He looked around with sleepy eyes to see that his fellow patrol members had also fallen prey to sleep. And each of them were now waking up from the same beeping noise. Su'lart clicked something on his helmet, and immediately, the voice of Kra'art told him and the rest of the patrol to meet him at the bridge. All four of the members got up, and walked towards the grav-lift to send them towards the Bridge. The other three Sangheili started to idly chat amongst themselves. _Looks like they are all acquainted with each other._ Sul'art thought to himself. _T'ras and Kra'art are formerly from the same patrol, and Vrawl and Grath were originally from the same patrol. And i'm the completely alien one here._

But Su'lart didn't really mind that. If he wasn't training, he would always be thinking, thinking about the future. But anyways, it is inevitable that each member of the Patrol will bond closely together, even the quiet ones will, as war, though horrible, is the only way to forge a long lasting camaraderie.

The huge golden-armored Sangheili, which was now briefing Shadow Patrol, was the Ship Master.

"As you all know, Kra'art accidentally turned on on a human marine's radio. In the process, the idiotic human on the other side of the line, spilled everything freely. We now know that the base of the human activities are 33 degrees north from here.". The Ship Master pointed at a triangle on a digital map of Halo on a big screen. "This was where your patrol leader was when he accidentally turned the radio on. According to this map, the enemy outpost should be somewhere between 10-15 human kilometers away from the triangulated position in this map.

Grath's hand raised. "Excellency, how do we know their human base is only about ten to fifteen kilometers away the triangulated position?".

The Ship Master nodded and said "Good question. We've inspected the radio, and found that the radio the human was carrying was an old model, and it's maximum range is 15 kilometers. We already have mapped out what was between the triangulated position and ten kilometers away from it, and there are no human bases reported. So now that your question is answered, your job is to get to the human outpost, capture all humans. Search their computers, interrogate them, do whatever you can do to find out the whereabouts of the Arbiter. Then kill them and burn the base down to the ground. If met with hostility, use the necessary force needed to take them down. Lethal force are allowed in this mission, but only if necessary. That is all. Any questions?".

The room was silent. "Good, then I expect you to get moving in 2 hours. Dismissed.".

Night had already descended upon Halo. During day, Halo had this brilliance to it. The sunlight would reflect of the artificial waters, causing a magnificent sparkling effect. But now, the only thing that can be heard is the crashing water in the waterfall, along with the low whine of the engines of the Phantom as it descended to a small Phantom stopped about twelve meters above the ground, then its gravity lift activated. Kra'art descended into the rocky ground first, followed by T'ras, then Vrawl, then Su'lart and finally Grath.

The pilot went down the last. The pilot was still busy talking on his radio while going down the gravity lift, then switched it off as he landed on the ground. "I've got orders to stay here and wait for you to come back." the Sangheili pilot said. "Make it fast so we can all go back up. Oh yeah, good luck by the way.".

Vrawl nodded his thanks,and got on one of the several Ghosts prepared for his patrol. Usually, ghosts would only have twin plasma cannons, but each of the cannons had extremely rapid fire rate. And each of the purple wings had boosters on it, allowing them to travel fast. Additionally, it's small size plus it's other traits distinguished the Ghosts as very good scouting vehicles.

Vrawl got on the Ghost and activated it. The anti-gravity boosters underneath the Ghosts activated, and the Ghost was raised slightly less than one foot of the ground. Then, he and the rest of Shadow Patrol sped off towards the direction of where this Human Outpost supposedly was.

_Something is wrong._ Vrawl thought to himself. _No, something WILL go wrong. _All of a sudden, Vrawl felt a sinking feeling in his stomach. He shook the feeling off. _Snap out of it. you're not scared, are you?_ He sighed. He's probably just panicking, panicking due to the fact that the Ship Master sent only a Patrol of Sangheili warriors to investigate an outpost, probably crawling with those _Human _scum.

Shadow Patrol continued on moving deeper into the darkness.

On many tentacles, it walked. It moved swiftly in a hidden, yet ugly grace. Slowly, it came from behind the Sangheili sitting on a rock by the Phantom. It waited a few moments, then jumped. The confused Sangheili only had a moment before it grabbed the warrior's face, and the shock was enough to put the Sangheili Warrior down to the ground. Within seconds, the once-proud warrior rose from the ground. Walking into the Phantom, more of those tentacle-legged creatures came and got on the Phantom. The pilot, now a Flood Infection form, drove the Phantom into the skies, going for the ship in low-orbit.


	5. Chapter 5

**Part 5: Mysterious Alliance**

Grath Ju'ldraas and his other teammates were all riding their Ghosts in silence. The only thing that could be heard in this quiet night was the engines of the Ghosts. When they were a kilometer away from the Human Base, they heard the distinct rattle of Human Assault Rifles, followed by more sounds of plasma discharges. The smell of both human and Sangheili blood suddenly filled the air. Everyone stopped their Ghosts in confusion.

"A battle?" Su'lart muttered to himself in disbelief. "Here?".

Vrawl idly scratched his mandibles. "The question is not where, but if we should postpone our mission and help our brothers.".

At that suggestion, Grath's face lit with enthusiasm. "Yes! We should join in the battle!". Grath half-shouted. Ever since he landed on this forsaken planet, he hasn't even fired a single shot from his trusty Plasma Rifle. And now that there is a chance to kill those _Insects, _Grath would not pass it up.

"No," T'ras Qu'rone said. "The Ship Master has given us orders to carry out the mission. We have to be finished by the time the first rays of light appear. And now we only have-" T'ras paused momentarily as he checked the time on his HUD. "Four hours left. We are behind time, we must go!".

An argument broke out as T'ras and Grath, while Vrawl and Su'lart awkwardly watched from one side. and in the background, screams and shouts could still be heard, as bullets pierced flesh and plasma burnt skin.

Grath was still pointing out the importance of helping their Sangheili in need, when Kra'art bellowed for silence.

"We shall help out our brothers for now. but after that, we go. that is final." Kra'art said as he got on and re-activated his Ghost.

Grath couldn't help but smirk as they sped off towards the sounds of battle.

######################################

As they reached the scene of the battle, Vrawl 'Faldaree immediately set out to work, splattering and gunning down any and Humans he saw. Sparks flew around as more bullets struck this Ghost. "Dammit," Vrawl said as he got off his Ghost and left it behind a rock. "I'll just go fight on foot now.". Vrawl ran off to some other Sangheili, and only then did Vrawl realize that most of the other warriors here are actually from the other Patrols sent around. He leapt and rolled into cover. "Good to see you, I was afraid we wouldn't make it out of this firefight." One other Sangheili said.

After fighting for a few minutes, Vrawl saw through a pattern in the enemy's style of combat. They seemed to only make shots ONLY when they were sure they would hit their targets. Vrawl smirked. _That means they're low on ammo. _Vrawl shouted through the roar of the battle. "Follow Me, I have a plan!". Vrawl jumped over his rock and started running to the enemy, at the same time ordering his fellow warriors to run in a criss-cross manner. The Humans, unable to accurately shoot at Vrawl, were thrown into confusion. Then when they reached striking distance, Vrawl and the rest began tearing the Humans apart.

In the brawl, an Sangheili warrior wearing Blue Armor was shot in the arm by a sniper. Immediately Vrawl panicked. he looked around. The rest only had Black armor. _That means he's the only warrior that was with the Arbiter left here. _ Panicking, Vrawl shouted "Don't let him die! Pull him into cover, now!". But while Vrawl wasn't paying attention, a barrage of bullets struck his energy shield and the shield flickered and died. Before Vralw even had the time to utter a curse, A human soldier so daringly engaged in close-combatwith the butt of a Human assault rifle, struck his mandibles, hard.

Vrawl fell back, and in his face was a hole. Vrawl realized in horror that that _hole, _was one end of a pistol. And that _end, _happened to be the one very little survived seeing while in combat. Vrawl simply lay there, awaiting death. However, death seemed uninterested in Vrawl. The empty pistol clicked once. Then it's user cursed and pulled the trigger several times again. _Click. Click. Click. _Nothing went out the the pistol. Vrawl jumped on his feet, and grabbed the Human's skull. Vrawl roared viciously into the terrified soldier's face, then caved it's skull in.

#########################################

Su'lart inspected the carnage. It sure is messy. Human bodies lay scorched and badly burnt, and he even saw body parts from the earlier close-combat brawl. The injured Sangheili minor died of his wounds in the middle of the battle. But not everything was lost. There was still a surviving Human. Kra'art took it upon himself to interrogate the foul creature.

Su'lart watched as Kra'art hit the Human again and again, asking several questions. _I have to admit, this Human really demands respect. He's so battered and bruised, yet he refuses to even say a word!_

After five more minutes of repeatedly hitting their prisoner, T'ras reminded Kra'art about the little amount of time left. Kra'art softly growled, then pointed an overcharged plasma pistol at the Human's face. "Speak now, Human, And you may live to exact vengeance on us!".

The Human looked up, then whispered. "You're all gonna die. You think your kind is the only one that has re-established radio contact with your home planet? They're coming to get you. And when they do, you are all going _to die. ALL _of you.".

Kra'art only let disappointment show in his face for a split-second, then killed the Human. "Let's go.".

Su'lart and the rest of his Patrol hopped on to their respective Ghosts, then went off.

#########################################

As they neared the Human Outpost, Vrawl started getting second thoughts. In the night sky, the moonlight slightly illuminated the seemingly-abandoned base. The base sat on a small hill, free from the trees and bushes that Vrawl and his team had just travelled through. The place seemed quite, with only the engines of their Ghosts to be heard.

The Outpost seemed empty, with lots of rifles laying around the ground directly in front of the Outpost. "Looks like there was a battle here." T'ras said, inspecting a pool of Human blood.".

"Something's not right here." Su'lart suddenly said. Everybody looked at him.

Vrawl frowned. "What is it? What isn't right here?".

"All weapons here are Human Weapons, there are no Covenant Weapons. So that means that the Humans killed each other. That isn't, and can't be right."

Kra'art nodded in agreement. Vrawl surveyed the place. Su'lart was right. There were no signs of any other weapons other than Pistols, Assault Rifles, Grenade Launchers and several Shotguns. The blood which soaked the battlefield was also only Human Blood.

Grath interrupted Vrawl's train of thoughts. "The weapons are of no concern, where are the bodies? And how are we going to get in if the big gate over there is closed?". Grath said, gesturing to a great metal gate right in front of them.

A deafening roar was suddenly heard, and shrapnel flew in all directions. A big ball of flame erupted from the gates. Vrawl was momentarily stunned, but saved himself from the explosion by dropping flat to the floor. Vrawl could feel the heat on his neck as the ball of flame passed by. Soon, only smoke remained where the 'eruption' occurred seconds ago.

Vrawl looked around at his friends. None were injured. Everybody had dropped to the ground in time.

Kra'art slowly walked into the destroyed gate. "I think that'll answer your question.". Kra'art turned on his radio to report to the Ship Master. "Come in Ship Master, can you hear me?". Silence. Kra'art tried again. "Ship Master, do you copy?". Silence.

Everything was silent for a while. Vrawl's nerves had already been excited by the explosion, he couldn't help his hands from trembling. The silence on the other end of the radio didn't help much either. His fellow friends seemed to be badly shakened by the explosion too, though.

Kra'art turned his radio off after several more tries. "Now what sir? Where did the explosion come from?" Vrawl asked.

Kra'art didn't bother to answer but instead walked into the Outpost, signaling the rest to follow suit.

#########################################

The sounds of footsteps echoed through the deserted base. The Sangheili warriors had activated their night vision to see in this dark base. The electricity happened to have been knocked out. So far, The Patrol travelled in silence, afraid that something would hear them if they spoke at all. The were blood stains on the walls, ceiling and the ground had convinced them that there was something here. But so far, there wasn't any bodies in this forsaken place. Not at all. Not until now at least.

Vrawl nearly tripped over a rotting piece of flesh. He looked down. It was a marine. But it didn't look like anything Human. It's lower jaw was missing,half of its left eyeball seemed to have been eaten along with most of it's forehead. his chest was ripped open, leaving it's ribcage sticking out and his entrails were spilled all over the floor too. His lower body was missing.

Everybody took a step back, rifles raised.

"What could've done this?" T'ras questioned, eyes fixed on the body.

Suddenly, an high-pitched, robotic voice said: "There's something else there, kill it!".

Vrawl activated his active camouflage. The rest followed suit. They fell into a defensive formation with rifles raised.

Around a corner suddenly came a big shock. There was sentinels, warriors of Halo. But the shocking thing was that there was a parasite. The Flood were usually controlled by Graveminds, which were literally made up of their fallen enemy's dead bodies. Sometimes, they would get so big, their tentacle would stretch on for miles and miles. Immediately, Vrawl had expected a fight to break out between the sentinels and parasite. But instead, they were working side by side, searching. _Searching for US._

The next thing that came didn't help much either. An Oracle came. Oracles were the keepers and guardians of the Halo Installations, built thousands of years ago when the Forerunners were at war with the Flood and were losing. The built the Halo Rings as an failsafe, just in case they lost. The Forerunners would put all sentient life they could find and put them into shield worlds to protect them. And only then would they fir the rings. The Oracles of other installations had tried to keep the Flood from spreading, why not this one?

"Over there, kill them!" the mysterious Oracle suddenly screamed, shocking Vrawl from his thoughts.

The Infection forms jumped at Vrawl, while the Sentinels fired their lasers at the rest. Vrawl easily shot down the Infection forms, at the same time he deactivated his active-camouflage. The rest did the same, and returned fire at the Sentinels.

A laser knocked Vrawl's energy shields out, and Vrawl bought himself some time by throwing a plasma grenade. He surveyed his surroundings for cover. None was available. The Sentinels were recovering from the explosion, and were targeting them again. Vrawl had to act fast. He realized that he had only one option. He shoved his disgust aside, then took the rotting dead human body and used it as temporary cover.

"My plasma rifle is out of battery!" Grath shouted. "Switching to plasma pistol.".

Vrawl fired a few bolts of plasma at a sentinel, bringing it down. Then he checked his HUD. No plasma grenades left. He scooped some stray fragmentation grenades from the ground, and tried to remember how to use these. He remembered something about a pin. He looked the grenade up and down for a pin, then found one. He pulled it off, the threw it to the directions of his enemies.

The grenade exploded noisily, blowing up some dust and causing a small, temporary ball of smoke. This gave them some rime to let their energy shields re-charge. As they got ready, the Oracle came out of the smoke. It usually had blue light, but now emitted a strange red light. Suddenly Vrawl remembered his father's personal recounts and warnings about the Oracle. He realized the red light was a sign that the Oracle was about to let loose a powerful laser, more than ten times stronger than a normal sentinel beam. "Damn, MOVE!" Vrawl shouted at his teammates as he rolled to one side, clear of the path oh the deadly beam. His warning came just in time, but still too late for some of his Patrol members.

Su'lart and Kra'art dodged the beam, but T'ras and Grath did not. Grath was just struck by a short swipe of the laser, but T'ras was blasted at the chest, taking out his energy shields and knocking him about twelve feet backwards.

Vrawl cursed. He turned around back at the Sentinels and counted only four of them left. "Quickly, we have to get T'ras out of here!" Vrawl heard Su'lart say as he helped Grath up. Grath fired his fuel rod cannon directly into the Oracle's red face, summoning a pained scream from the Oracle who was pushed backwards. Vrawl shot and overcharged plasma pistol shot at the Sentinels wildly, hitting one of them. That Sentinels briefly lost control of it's circuits and Kra'art took this chance to lob a plasma greened, which stuck on the Sentinel and exploded. The explosion also destroyed the other Sentinels.

The short but deadly firefight had ended.

Not wanting to stick around, Kra'art carried T'ras and started to run towards the way they came from.

"Grath," Kra'art said.

"Yes?".

"Radio the Ship Master, tell him we need evac, now.".

Grath radioed back to the ship in low-orbit. "Excellency, we have completed our mission, the Outpost contains The Parasite and they are working with the Sentinels, we are outnumbered and have wounded. We need evac, now!". Suddenlly there was screaming and plasma shots. "Ship Master? Are you there?". More screams and a few more shots came. Suddenly, an Elite minor's voice came through. "The Ship Master is dead, repeat, the Ship Master IS DEAD, our ship is overrun by Flood, we can't help you. We're going to self-destruct the ship so The Flood can't escape Halo.". The transmission ended abruptly when an unholy shriek was heard, followed by plasma fire and then the Elite Minor's scream.

#########################################

The pitch black of space could be seen from the window of the UNSC _Marathon-_Class Cruiser _Spear Holder,_ as it came out of slipspace, and Halo came into view. Collin-427, Matthew-494 and Bendict-403 stared out of the window, all fully dressed in their SPARTAN armor.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6: The beginning of a Journey**

The sun was just rising into view, casting dim rays of light into Halo. It had only been a few hours since they escaped the Flood and the Sentinels. Vrawl 'Faldaree shook all of his friends awake, except for T'ras Q'urone, who was still recovering from his injury and lay unconscious.

"We better move. The Flood are probably only a few miles behind us for all we know." Vrawl said as he begun to sling T'ras on his back. They took turns to carry T'ras and now it was his turn. At that moment, a thin orange laser flew right beside Vrawl's head, and hit Kra'art on the shoulder, causing his energy shields to flicker.

"We are under attack!" Grath shouted as he pressed the trigger on his Plasma Rifle, sending dozens of white-blue plasma bolts flying towards oncoming Flood and Sentinels in a few seconds.

Eight Flood Combat Forms charged, firing several human weapons, and the Infection Forms moved towards the band of Sangheili Warriors quickly, with several Sentinels coming from the back. _They have us surrounded!_ Vrawl thought to himself, as he put T'ras down. With a carbine, he effectively took out one Combat Form by shooting it's chest, where the Infection Form was lodged in.

"Form a defensive circle around T'ras!" Kra'art shouted.

Vrawl took several steps back to join the incomplete circle. A Combat form jumped high, and roared as it landed in front of Vrawl. Vrawl struck the walking threat in front of him with his carbine several times, but the Combat Form did not even seem to notice the hard blows as it tore Vrawl's carbine from his hand and demolished it. Vrawl fumbled for his sidearm, but while panicking, dropped it instead. The Combat Form raised it's hand and struck him with the long claws from it's hand. Vrawl fell backwards, and roared in pain as his energy shield buckled and flickered off from the attack. Purple blood oozed of the wound. Vrawl managed to pick up his plasma pistol, and before the Combat Form could finish him off, Vrawl discharged the Plasma Pistol at the infection form inside the Combat Form's chest.

Vrawl pushed it's body off him, and he managed to get up in time to see three sentinels swooping over the Squad, taking out Su'laart and Grath's shields, with Kra'art dodging in time. Su'laart retaliated immediately, throwing a plasma grenade, and with his dead aim, stuck both of the Sentinels with one plasma grenade.

The remaining Sentinel was quickly dispatched by several well placed strikes from Kra'art's plasma rifle.

The last four Flood combat forms were killed easily by the concentrated efforts of the rest of the team.

"We better get moving now." Kra'art said. "They would have easily seen or heard all the commotion over here.".

The rest nodded quietly and started to pack up and go. Vrawl picked T'ras up and slung him on his back before joining the rest of Shadow Patrol on the descent from this small hill.

######################################

Rain poured heavily, and along with the fog made the forest look haunted. The trees of this forest could reach over sixty meters high, and the leaves at the top of these tall trees interlocked with each other, blocking out sunlight and it also didn't help much with making the forest look friendlier. A chill went down Grath Jul'draas's spine as he walked. he was at the rear of the team, placed there to guard against any attacks from behind. At first Grath had thought that it would be fun to be placed at the back, as the cowardly Sentinels and Flood would most likely come from behind to attack, and that meant that he could kill more of them. But now, Grath longed to walk in the middle of the formation, as the one at the back would risk losing his squad if he doesn't pay attention to where he is walking or where his teammates are walking to.

Suddenly, up ahead, Grath saw that there were shadows of about seven Sangheili, with their backs turned away rom Grath and the rest. They seemed to be in a small discussion about something.

"Are they infected?" Grath whispered to Su'laart, who was just in front of him. Su'laart simply shook his head.

"I'm going to call out to them. They may be hostiles so prepare to fire." Kra'art said.

Everybody backed away and tried to find some cover quietly. Grath and Su'laart hid behind an unreasonably thick tree, and Vrawl hid T'ras's body in a bushy area of land, before laying prone next to T'ras so he was camouflaged. Kra'art then called out to the seven lost Sangheili.

To Grath's relief, the Sangheili turn around, and they all looked normal. As soon as they saw who called them, they walked in Kra'art's direction, looking relieved to see Shadow Patrol.

Grath and the rest got out of hiding and proceeded to greet the Sangheili, now only a few meters away.

"It's great to see living warriors." One of the Sangheili said. "We've only seen mechanical Sentinel warriors and undead Flood for the last five days.".

"Five days?" Grath repeated. "We only first encountered the Flood yesterday.".

The other Sangheili nodded and said "We were on the other side of the ring, we were all sent there to search for the Arbiter. All we found was flood and Sentinels, mysteriously working together. Our numbers reached well over a hundred, but I am afraid there are no more than thirty Spec-Ops warriors left. We went our separate ways when the Monitor of this installation ambushed us with dozens of Flood and sentinel warriors three days ago. Every one of us fled in different directions, so it is hard to say where the rest are.".

They relaxed for a few hours, taking advantage of the fog to idly chat without fear of being discovered. The fog provided them with excellent cover. Grath was recounting how he had just narrowly avoided the deadly beam of a Monitor to Nihai' F'ouyok, the sole survivor of his own patrol, whom he had befriended.

After Grath finished, Nihai' started recounting on how his whole patrol died in front of him, and then how he found these six other Sangheili yesterday.

Grath looked around and saw Vrawl sitting alone, cleaning his left breastplate. He invited Vrawl over to talk, and then introduced Vrawl and Nihai' to each other. "Nihai', this is Vrawl, one of the best shots I've ever met, and Vrawl, this is Niahi', the sole survivor of his patrol.". Vrawl and Nihai' greeted each other, then they started talking about what they thought would happen if they survived Halo.

"I'm pretty sure we'll receive lots of attention." Vrawl said. "The Arbiter barely survived his experiences in Installation 05 and 04. And both of those times the Sentinels and Flood were fighting against each other too. Now we have both trying to kill us.".

"Yeah." Nihai' replied. "But if we survive, I'm sure we'll receive medals and awards, which will no doubt uphold our family name and honor.".

It was several hours later did Kra'art and the de facto leader of the group of survivors Shadow Patrol had just found unanimously decided that they set up camp here, and not move until they re-establish contact with Sangheilios and request reinforcements.

"We have the advantage here geographically, as the piece of land we now stand on is slightly raised, and even with the fog, we'll be able to spot any hostiles from a mile away." Kra'art explained. "We will set up our camp inside several makeshift walls, these walls would always be guarded. The walls are divide into four parts. North wall, East wall, South wall, and West wall. There will always be two guards on each wall. We will have twelve in this camp with one in a comatose state. so we have more than enough for two people to take the night shift and another two to take the day shift while those taking the night shift rests. Those not taking shifts or resting will be sent out to scavenge for equipment laying around or in battlefields. hopefully we will find the necessary thing to make contact with Sanghelios. But now, I expect everyone to go to work and set up the camp as I have earlier specified.". And with that everyone got to work.

######################################

Rain poured over his emerald helmet and MJOLNIR IV suit. The armor was still in experimental stages but had to be deployed and worn by the three best Spartans of the SPARTAN III Programs for use in Halo. The SPARTAN III Program held the status of inactive, but only the highest ranking officials in the UNSC knew of the Program's continued existence.

Benedict-403 pulled out his combat knife from the skull of a dead blue-armored Elite.

"Don't you think something is amiss?" Matthew-494 asked while casually cleaning purple blood off his armor.

"Yeah." Benedict said. "The ONI agents that gave us intel reports stated that the Elites had sent Spec-Ops warriors down here not more than a week ago. Spec-Ops armor is black.". Benedict looked down at the floor and surveyed the colorful carnage, red and blue armored Elites all dead on the floor. "These guys were obviously with The Arbiter.".

"And that means more hell for us." Collin-427 said. "There are obviously more Elites than earlier stated. This will be a problem.".

Matthew chuckled. "Don't tell me you can't take on a few more Elites than originally planned.".

Collin shook his head and said "It's not a few more Elites that I'm worried about. It's about the Arbiter.".

######################################

Vrawl lifted his beam rifle up to eye level and surveyed his surroundings. _I could have sworn I saw something move. _

Night had fallen quickly, and it was Vrawl who had been assigned to keep watch over the east walls.It had been three weeks since the camp had been built. They got their wood from cutting down smaller trees and their tents from the skins of the local animals. Their ammo was conserved and shared, and they got their food from their remaining rations, local animals and plants, and from scavenging battlefields. The most pressing matter was not of water, as there is a clean source of water running downhill not too far away discovered by Kra'art himself, but the dangerous matter is the poisonous nature of some of these plants. One had already fallen from eating a poisonous plant. however, his death would be a learning experience for others to stay away from that plant.

"Yeah I saw it too.".

"Do you think it was another animal, Nihai'?"

"No." Nihai' replied still looking for the source of the movement. "It moved too fast and all it's movements were coordinated too well, as if those movements were supposed to keep an assassin from being seen.".

"Now your just imagining things." Vrawl said. "See? Nothing else is moving.".

"Well, I'm sure it won't hurt to check." Nihai' said.

Vrawl shook his head. "We cannot afford to waste ammo, on some stray animal.".

"Fine then. I won't shoot. I'll just check.".

"Wait. What if there IS something out there?".

Nihai' smirked and pulled out a little handle from his belt. "I got this.".

Vrawl realized what the handle was. It is a handle of an energy sword, weapons only used by the most decorated Sangheili warriors, and for a good reason. Many a times, young and inexperienced warriors are killed, because the take out their energy swords, then charge out to no man's land towards their enemies a hundred meters away. the young and inexperienced have no sense of timing, only an experienced warrior would know when was the time to use the energy sword.

"Where did you get that!" Vrawl questioned.

"My patrol leader asked me to hold it while he was reloading during a battle. He was shot not more than a second after he passed this to me.".

Vrawl frowned. "You're not supposed to use that you know.".

Nihai' thought about this for a while before saying "Yes, I know. But the reason we're not supposed to use this is because most warriors don't know the correct time to pull out their sword. When I go down there, it'll only be close combat fighting, IF there is going to be fighting in the first place.".

After a while of arguing, Vrawl gave in. "Fine. Just come back in half an hour.".

Nihai' nodded and went off.

######################################

Nihai' carried the un-activated sword in his hand as he checked behind another bush. _Still nothing there. It's been nearly twenty minutes but still nothing there. _Nihai' was just about to give up and go home, when he suddenly thought he saw a little bit of light glistene and reflect of a bush. _Aha, in a bush._ Nihai' activated his energy sword, then casually walked towards the bush. With one hand, he tore the bush open, confident he would find screaming Humans, begging not to be cut into pieces.

However, a green armored hand quickly shot from the bush and hit Nihai' just under the mandibles which sent him flying back. The green armored _thing, _jumped out of the bush and moved fast, running towards Nihai'. Nihai' then realized something: this thing matched the description of_ a demon._

Nihai' was already on his feet and with his activated sword, charged towards the demon, roaring furiously. Nihai' slashed down, but the demon sidestepped and grabbed Nihai's elbow, then the demon put his foot behind Nihai's foot, and pulled, while simultaneously jerking his foot, spinning him in the air. Nihai' was dazzled by the demon's sudden and choreographed movements. _He moves like water, freely and naturally._ The demon kicked Nihai's still spinning body and he flew towards a tree, then landed on the hard ground with a loud thud.

Nihai' struggled to recover, but the demon was already upon him. Seeing this, Nihai' swung at the demon's legs, desperately. The demon jumped and Nihai's sword totally missed it's target. But while the demon was in the air, Nihai' delivered a powerful side kick, which the demon blocked with ease. However, the force of such a kick had forced the demon several meters back. Nihai' scrambled to his feet, and the demon was already running toward him again.

Nihai' gave a stab to the demon who was running towards Nihai, and the demon easily switched from running, to rolling in between the space between Nihai's two legs, and from behind him, jumped on Nihai's back. Nihai' had no idea what the demon was going to do, so Nihai' quickly rammed the demon on a tree behind him. The impact was so hard, he heard the demon's shields flickered out, and the demon let go.

Nihai' turned around, and then swung his sword, trying to take off the demon's head. The demon ducked quickly at the last moment, and all in one fluid movement, grabbed Nihai's sword hand's elbow, and with one powerful twist, broke Nihai's wrist.

Nihai' didn't even have any time to scream, before the demon gave him an uppercut which brought Nihai' to a hard landing several meters away.

Darkness started to take control over Nihai', but Nihai' fought it, shaking his head out of the dazed state. Nihai' managed to get up, but had to lean on a tree for support. The emerald figure looked at him and let out a short chuckle. _He's enjoying this._ Nihai' roared furiously, picked up his energy sword with his good hand, and charged towards the demon.

The demon dodged by leaning slightly to one side, then swiped Nihai' out of the way.

Nihai' fell to the ground, and his energy sword tumbled away to several nearby bushes. Darkness started to close in around Nihai's vision. _No, no. I can't be finished like this._ but it was too late, Nihai' fell unconscious.

######################################

Vrawl led Grath and Kra'art through several thick bushes to where he remembered seeing Nihai' go. Nihai' had been missing for forty five minutes now. "We agreed that he had to come back in half an hour." Vrawl said to his companions.

They searched in silence for several more minutes, when Vrawl saw something glittering in the moonlight.

"There! That's the hilt of Nihai's Energy Sword!".

"But where is he?" Grath asked.

"I think I know the answer. Come over here." Kra'art said.

And when Vrawl reached Kra'art a few meters away, they saw Nihai's broken and bleeding unconscious body.

######################################

Sound and feeling started to come back. The rough feeling of the animal skins that were used as bed sheets in the camp slowly came back too. And the not so familiar chattering sounds of native insects of Halo, accompanied by the occasional voices belonging to two unknown fellow warriors.

"I think he's regaining consciousness." one of the voices said.

"Hey, take it easy, Nihai'. You've been out for quite a while." the other voice said. "We've patched you up the best we can, but under current circumstances, we couldn't fix you up properly.".

Nihai's vision started to clear, and he recognized one to be Vrawl, and the other was an Sangheili, whose name he had not memorized. He also realized that the tent he was in was different than the standard tents that were made in the campsite.

Nihai's finally summoned the strength to sit upright. He looked at Vrawl, then said "Fill me in, how long was I out and what progress has been made to get in touch with Sangheilios?".

Vrawl thought about this for a while, then said "Bad news is, we were attacked by three emerald armored soldiers while you were unconscious, and we believe that the soldiers are demons sent here to, well you know, eliminate us.".

At the mention of the demon, Nihai' remembered the events of the night that nearly killed him.

"Ah yes, yes, I remember, a demon attacked me that night!" Nihai' exclaimed.

"Uh yeah, we figured that out. But with bad news, comes two good news." Vrawl said. "We repelled the attack successfully with no casualties and six injured, and when the demons retreated, they left behind some communications equipment. Now, we just have to attach our makeshift radio to a big power source, since the radio we have can't reach Sanghelios by itself." the other Sangheili said.

Vrawl nodded. "Yes, and Kra'art thinks that those Forerunner structures laying all over Halo shooting out what seems to be blue energy into the air may become of use, so-".

"He wants to send a few of us to find one, and call for help, then come back." Nihai' finished. Nihai' had guessed correctly during the first few days with Kra'artthat Kra'art was the no-nonsense type of leader, and wouldn't mind losing a few men for the safety of the bigger group. And this attitude sometimes made him look heartless in front of others, though he doesn't care what others think of him.

"Technically, yes." Vrawl said.

Nihai' looked at Vrawl, posing a silent question. _Technically? I've got to hear this. Kra'art probably gave another crazy order._

"Kra'art wants Shadow Patrol, to go and search for a power source," Vrawl said. "But since we have an inactive member, he wanted you to replace T'ras Q'urone.".

"Also, he says that we'll probably have to fight our way through Flood and Sentinels. So, after we make contact with our home planet, he doesn't want us to be followed by anything. He says that to avoid leading any Flood back here, we'll probably have to camp somewhere else. In other words, we don't go back here.".

######################################

Kra'art paced around his tent. The outside of the tent looked like any normal tent, but his tent was where all the ammunition, and battery for their weapons was kept. The floor was lined with any type of ammo. Plasma batteries, a human assault rifle clip, anything they found. _They should be here anytime now. _

Kra'art had sent the order for all of Shadow Patrol's members, except for himself of course, to meet him at his tent in ten minutes. Kra'art was going to equip them with half of this camp's ammo and weapons, and also half their food. _They're journey is going to be long and hard, and for them to succeed, they need to be prepared. _

And the three still active members of Shadow Patrol plus Nihai' F'ouyok walked in.

"OK, you're all here. I'm sure you all are geared up, and have already picked the weapons you will be bringing?" Kra'art asked.

They all nodded.

"Good, now as you can see, the ammunitions are lined up on the ground. I want all of you to bring all of this in your journey. Pick amongst yourselves who will carry what ammunition. Go ahead." Kra'art said.

Su'laart picked up a few shells of shotgun ammunition for a shotgun he slung around his shoulders, and a few plasma batteries for his plasma rifle. Vrawl took with him ammo for his beam rifle, batteries for his plasma rifle and his sidearm, a plasma pistol.

Soon, the long lines of ammunition and plasma battery cells were all gone, all taken by the brave warriors, who are probably not going to survive to see the benefits of this journey._ Well, you can't win without losses._

_"_Now, you are ready to go." Kra'art said. "You all should know that none of you are probably going to survive to see Sanghelios ever again, but trust me, giving out an order that would kill my own men, though for the good of more of us, hurts me a _lot._".

"If I were given the choice, I would have gone by myself, but I can't. I am the leader of this band of survivors, and they need me. Trust me, if any of you even survive, you'll find out that being a leader is harder than it looks. And don't worry. I will inform everybody about this heroic deed you are about to perform.".

Kra'art looked at all his men. Then he stopped at Vrawl, and looked him in the eye.

"And Vrawl," Kra'art said.

"Yes?".

"We'll keep T'ras safe. Don't worry. We'll guard him with our life.".

"Thank you….your excellency.".

Kra'art nodded. "Just repaying the favor.".


	7. Chapter 7

**Author's Note: It's finally done, well I know it wasn't that long, but it seemed like an eternity to me. Anyways, long chapter ahead.**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 7: Reinforcements Incoming<strong>

Vrawl 'Faldaree trudged silently across a grass field with his large bag and heavy battle scarred armor. It had been two days, and every one had been quite silent, all probably still swallowing the fact that they were literally walking to their doom.

Vrawl shooed away an insect which looked like it had pretty sharp teeth that'll sink in anyone's skin easily.

_I've gotta watch myself. These thing may be poisonous._

The longer waist level grass became shorter and was now at knee level. Vrawl looked around and realized the the taller and more widely spaced trees were now more compact, and the trees were shorter and thicker.

Vrawl decided that he would break the silence. "We've been heading north for some time now. The trees we see are growing in number, and the fog has gone. That is a good sign.".

The rest nodded, but remained silent.

Vrawl sighed._Well, I tried._

The skies grew dark after a while, and that was when they all decided that they would stop here. Pitching their tent took only three quarters of an hour. Then, they all sat in a circle and ate.

While eating, they decided to break the silence and talk about their personal concerns.

"I have a little sister at home. We were very close as our parents were too busy to take care of her. If I don't make it back, I just couldn't imagine how devastated she'll be." Nihai' said while chewing on his food.

Vrawl's thoughts immediately went to his father. The guilt he'd feel about out-living his son. _Maybe we should just abandon the mission. It's hopeless. We are probably miles from any source of energy. _Suddenly, as if realizing what he had just contemplated, Vrawl shook his head to get the thought out of his mind._ No, I'd rather die on the battlefield than run. I have more than myself to protect. I need to protect my family's honor._

The piercing sound of a sniper rifle's bullet cracked in the still air. The armor piercing bullet missed Vrawl's head, tearing a big hole through a tree behind Vrawl and leaving behind a vapor trail, and four shocked Sangheili.

Everybody freezed for a moment, Vrawl and his companions shocked by the sudden attack, and the sniper probably shocked, or just surprised that he missed a sitting target.

Then everybody moved into action at once. Vrawl grabbed his beam rifle and dove behind cover, while the rest took their own weapons and hid where they could, and the hidden sniper fired three more wild shots which left vapor trail zig-zagging across the place.

Vrawl stayed hidden for several seconds. _Dammit. Are these the Demons? Or just Human survivors?_ Vrawl cursed silently.

Suddenly, as if to make things worse, Vrawl heard gun fire, and saw the bullets flying through the air. Vrawl popped out of cover, and saw four Human soldiers firing their rifles and pistols while running into no-man's land. Vrawl went back into cover._ Ha, fools. They will be killed in no time. _Vrawl looked to his left and saw Su'laart and Grath popping out of their cover, several white hot plasma shots leaving their guns as they did so. Suddenly, another crack was heard, and immediately, Grath's weapon exploded in a fiery blue ball.

"The sniper! Take it out!" Su'laart shouted.

_Oh, now I know why they are so daring. The sniper is covering them. _Vrawl peeked out of his cover with his beam rifle. _I saw where your vapor trail came from, sniper._ Vrawl sighted a man, wearing a cap and seemed to be in his early forties holding a sniper rifle, hiding atop the leaves of a tree. _Gotcha._ A thin purple beam lanced out of the beam rifle, and struck it's target at dead centre in the middle of it's eyes. The human's body fell, and landed hard with a sickening crunch.

"The sniper is killed!" Vrawl shouted to his teammates.

Su'laart immediately got out of cover, charged at the panicking and confused humans, roaring and shooting plasma at them. Nihai' followed suit while Vrawl tended to Grath.

Soon, the band of humans were decimated.

"Grath, are you alright?" Vrawl asked his dear friend.

Grath managed to get up by himself, then replied "Yeah, just some burns. My energy shields took the brunt of the explosion.".

Vrawl nodded and they all went to sleep. Vrawl was quite sure that he would be feeling too jumpy and wouldn't be able to sleep, but exhaustion came in and he slept fast.

* * *

><p>Su'laart opened his eyes slowly. He looked around. <em>Still alive.<em> Everyone else was asleep. _After the attack last night, they should have thought whether or not the Flood saw or heard us. We should all be dead. _Su'laart didn't bother to tell them, mostly because he felt he didn't have to. He was half-expecting to be killed in his sleep.

Su'laart went outside and awaited everyone to wake up. In half an hour, everyone was awake.

"Lets pack up and get going." Grath said while folding the tent with Vrawl.

Su'laart and Nihai' picked up everything that would probably give away the fact that they were even here.

After Grath secured the folded tent into Vrawl's bag, they re-started their daily routine, to walk, kill any hostiles, then pitch a tent, eat, then sleep.

* * *

><p>Atson 'Samarai sat in his office in the capital of Sanghelios. The white-armored Commander of Special Operations had been busy with political problems. He had to involved in many political arguments, mostly because he was a very influential swordsman, and by now, he was being sent Holo-Drones about political problems, and doing paperwork.<p>

However, this morning was different. Atson had been sent another Holo-Drone. He activated the Holo-Drone, and immediately the hologram sprang to life, taking the shape of a Sangheili. It was one of his Special Operations Officers aboard one of the Cruisers in the atmosphere of Sanghelios. Ever since the war reignited, ships had been formed into blockades around the Sangheili homeworld to protect it.

"Your excellency," the holographic figure of Cksi' Nar L'olor said.

"Speak."

"One of our scout ships were nearby the Human territories. They reported seeing a large fleet jumping into slipspace. Unfortunately, the Humans spotted them. Only a few came back.".

"Interesting," Atson thought about all the possibilities of where they could have gone with such a big fleet. "Did they show any hints on where they were going?".

"Negative, but I fear they may be trying to take one of our planets.".

Atson thought over this. The Sangheili took all of the planets the Covenant had controlled, because the Unggoy wanted none and the Kig-Yar were offered none, and the Sangheili had crushed the Brutes and sent them into hiding far away.

"Excellency, should I tell the High Council?" Cksi asked.

After a little more thought, Atson nodded. "Yes, and remember to bring your identity disk with you. You will not be admitted entrance if you do not have it with you.".

"Yes Excellency." Cksi said and then his hologram faded out.

Atson sighed and leaned back on his chair. _What if they were going to attack Sanghelios? Or what if they were heading to Halo? To where my warriors are stationed?_

"This is bad." Atson said to himself.

He changed into civilian clothes and walked out of his office. Outside there was a new batch of Special Operations Sangheili training. They saluted him as he walked past, and he returned it. He took the grav-lift down onto the first floor and walked out the door. Outside was barren, with the debris of fallen buildings and many ship parts strewn around. In the distance, he could see one quarter of a Brute cruiser sticking out of the ground.

There were many more like this around. Sanghelios hasn't actually finished cleaning up after the battles fought above it, and that's why nobody was allowed to set foot in the "Danger Zones". Only military training camps were allowed to be set up in these zones.

He hurried into the side seat of a Revenant, and asked the Sangheili driving it to send him to the capital city, where the main military headquarters is located at.

The scenery of the first few minutes of the ride was nothing but signs of destruction. But as they got closer to the capital, one would see tall buildings rising high above the ground, overshadowing the traffic below it. The traffic became busier and busier as they got closer to the capital, and finally after an hour of riding, he arrived at a spire shaped building.

_The headquarters of the Sangheili military. _

He walked towards the shield doors, but before he reached the shield doors, a red armored Sangheili major and two minors stopped him.

"What is your business here." the major asked.

"I am here to see the Zealot in charge.".

"Do you have an appointment?".

"No, but I know him. He is a friend.".

The zealot in charge, Eesa Ar'varm, was a personal childhood friend. They parted when Atson joined the Special Operations branch, while Eesa became a normal minor. They both kept in touch with each other, and that's how he knew that his old friend was now a zealot.

"Your name?".

"Atson 'Samarai.".

Upon hearing the name of a respected swordsman, the major finally asked to check his identity disk, then apologized briefly then let him in.

The inside was decorated well, holograms depicting many brave Sangheili of past and present were on top of a fifteen foot pedestal. He looked around for a directory of some sort to find where he could find his friend's office. When he found one, the directory stated that the first and second levels were for those who had become of age to register in the Sangheili military, and the third through the fifth floors were for the most basic of military training. And finally, the sixth floor was where the offices was located.

He took the gravity lift to the sixth floor and when he arrived, he looked around and saw an Ultra walking towards the grav-lifts. He asked an Ultra where Eesa's office was located.

"His office number is #B-32. Do you have an appointment with him?".

Atson sighed. He was starting to regret taking of his white Commander of Special Operations armor. That would have signified him as someone important.

"I am Atson 'Samarai, respected swordsman and personal friend of Eesa Ar'varm. I think I need not an appointment.".

The Ultra's face turned red in shame upon not using the proper honorifics and apologized.

"His office is just around the corner excellency." The Ultra said.

"Thank you. May I know your name?"

The Ultra became visibly distraught, probably worried that a complaint about him will be sent to Eesa. But nevertheless the Ultra gave Atson his name.

"Lysi 'Rea'umai, your excellency.".

Atson nodded and sent the Ultra away. He always took note of those that would be either potentially dangerous to him, or potentially helpful. He followed the Ultra's directions and soon found himself staring at a door that had the numbers #B-32 etched on it. The doors slid apart and inside he saw a plain office with just a chair, a desk, and some snacks on top a lower table. And sitting on the desk was his old friend, Eesa Ar'varm.

As soon as Eesa saw Atson, he got up and smiled.

"My dear old friend! How is life as a Zealot doing for you?" Atson asked.

"Everything is going well my friend. So how has life been treating you?".

And so Atson sat and recounted how much trouble he had just to get into this very office.

"Is that so? Did you take down the names of those who had troubled you? I will teach them how to respect a warrior of a higher rank." Eesa said.

Immediately, the white Ultra's name came into mind. _Was it…..Lysi? Lysi 'Rea'umai? Something like that._ But he dismissed the thought.

"It's ok, friend. It was my fault for not wearing my armor to signify my rank. Anyways, that shows that your guards here are doing their jobs well." Atson said. "But now back to the topic. How do you like your new rank?".

Eesa seemed to think over this for a while. Then he said "I appreciate the High Council giving me such an honored rank, though I have observed that my skin is getting softer, and I am getting fatter. If only I could plunge myself into battle like I used to.".

Atson smiled. "Maybe you could do that once more.".

"Pardon?".

"You know, get back into the front lines, don't you miss all the glory?".

Eesa laughed. "Well, of course. But I cant just leave my post as a Royal Zealot, the overseer of the military headquarters!".

Atson thought over these words. And carefully formulated the reply in his head. "Of course you can't do that. One could only do that with a valid reason. And when one has a reason, a temporary replacement will come in and replace you.".

"And do you have a valid reason?".

"Yes, yes I do.".

Atson didn't really want to do this to his friend. Atson, though unbeknownst to him until he "started" his political career, had a special gift, a gift of manipulation. He used it a few times during political arguments, but using it on his friend made him feel like he was betraying him.

_I'm not betraying you, Eesa. I'm doing this to stop a potentially devastating defeat._

And so Atson discussed the new report that just came in this morning, and discussed about his fears of an invasion, or a devastating defeat at Halo.

"So, you see friend, I'll be needing your help. I heard that your tactical advice and combat prowess has turned the tide of many battles." Atson said, then took a sip from a cup that was offered to him by Eesa. "So, will you follow me to get the High Council to authorize me to gather a fleet big enough to hunt down the human's fleet?".

Eesa seemed to think over this for awhile, then turned to Atson, and finally said: "Yes.".

* * *

><p>The moon shone brightly this night. However, the stars which would be visible, were blocked out by the dark clouds, and only the moon seemed to be spared. Vrawl 'Faldaree was laying atop a cliff that overlooked the Forerunner structure turned human outpost below, aiming down the sights of his beam rifle, scanning the newly turned Human outpost.<p>

This outpost had a type of wall that seemed to be made of a weird metal surrounding it, and the walls also had some spaces for several men to guard the walls by standing atop it, and there was also a central structure, a mini spire made of the same unknown metal, which lets loose blue bolts of plasma into the air about every minute, which was exactly what they were searching for.

Also, this outpost seemed to be sort of a headquarters for the humans stranded on Halo. Vrawl had already relayed all vital information about this outpost, like the size, roughly how many men there were, and whether or not there are any specific locations they could capture, or burn down to the ground to give themselves a tactical advantage.

"We have already established that most of theses humans are already probably down to their last cartridge, we can take them down with a straight charge." Grath said over the radio.

Nihai' was heard chuckling on the other end of the radio. "Nonsense. This is the main headquarters. They most probably have something up their sleeve. We should sneak in instead of attacking.".

Almost as if to reinforce Nihai's point, several humans exited what seemed to be an underground exit, and replace those already guarding the walls.

"Grath, Nihai' is right. more men just came out of what I presume to be an entrance to something underground and replaced those that were already guarding the walls. You wanna know what I think? There are too much for us to handle. Also, these guys seem to be organized, and it wont be easy to take them down.".

Vrawl could hear Grath cursing, but before anyone could say anything else, Vrawl detected a flurry of movement at the corner of his eye. What Vrawl had already marked mentally as the west gate, suddenly exploded, blowing the gates outward, and taking the live of a few Humans with it.

A few seconds later, many crimson armored majors, and blue minors with only a handful of black armored Spec-Ops Sangheili ran through where the gate once stood, firing their plasma weapons and lobbing their plasma grenades at the panicked and shocked humans.

"Looks like it will not be much of a problem now." Grath said over the radio. "Let's go.".

Vrawl stayed behind to give covering fire with his beam rifle while the rest attacked.

Vrawl noticed human reinforcements pouring out of the underground entrance, and Vrawl shifted his concentration to them, pinning them down, while simultaneously warning Grath over the radio.

However, a sudden surge of Humans charging out of the exit forced Vrawl to continuously fire his beam rifle, which then overheated and gave the Humans the chance to join the battle.

_Dammit. I fell for it!_

While the battle raged on, up in the atmosphere, nobody had noticed that the large UNSC Fleet had just exited slipspace, and were ready to deploy reinforcements to the surface.

* * *

><p>Grath Ju'ldraas entered through the now non-existent west gate of the Forerunner Structure. It was littered with dead Human, and some Sangheili bodies. They followed the trail of dead bodies, until they found where all the fighting was taking place.<p>

The Sangheili warriors were pinned down behind a wall by continuous fire from the Humans.

"Follow me, I've found a route that will allow us to flank them from their sides!" Nihai' told his comrades.

They ran quickly towards a short and small structure, and after entering it and running through several corridors, they found a window that showed the view of a perfectly exposed left flank.

They jumped through the window, and charged while shouting war cries. The Humans were taken by surprise and they stopped firing all together for awhile. By the time they had recovered, Plasma fire had cut many of the humans down.

The remaining Humans fled, probably to falling back to a more secure part of this small base where they had more cover.

They took this chance to meet up with the main Sangheili attack force and organize themselves.

"Reinforcements arrive! But how did you survive the Flood? We thought we were the only ones left!" one of the minors said.

"We don't have enough time now!" one of the majors shouted. "Let us give chase, now!".

The Humans were tired, probably because of lack of sleep, and because of that, the large band of Elites caught up and cut them down. However, there was an ambush in place, and they were suddenly taking fire from their right, where the Humans managed to bring down the shields of some of the Elites before any of them reacted. Most of the unlucky ones were then killed by the continuous fire from the assault rifles. Grath happened to be one of those who were shot, however the shot only struck his side, and didn't go too deep.

Grath turned and opened fire with his plasma rifle, scorching the Humans and shooting down at least two. Only after the Elite beside him dropped, Grath tried to retreat backwards. But fortune was not on his side, as whie Grath was walking backwards, his heel struck the body of one of the fallen Elites, and with his balance threatened, Grath dropped his rifle. Making things worse for Grath was that a stray bullet struck him. Though shields were fully recharged, the impact pushed him back.

With balance totally compromised, Grath toppled over and landed hard on his back.

Immediately, bullets started to pound Grath, taking away his shields.

_I am finished! _Grath thought to himself.

But just as another barrage of bullets flew in his direction, another black armoredElite rolled in front of Grath, taking the brunt of the barrage with his still active energy shields. The Elite, Su'laart, opened lobbed a plasma grenade at the Humans, and a few seconds later, Grath heard screams as the grenade exploded. The amount of bullets being fired grew considerably less immediately.

The firefight was brutal; there was no cover for the Elites; but the Humans had sufficient cover. However, Su'laart's well thrown grenade thinned the number of humans greatly.

"Vrawl! Where's my covering fire?" Grath shouted over his radio.

"I can't get a visual on the humans your fighting! But I can see more Humans coming in from your side! They're trying to flank you!" Vrawl's voice crackled over the radio. "I've been picking them off one by one for a while now, and when they reach you you should be able to repel them.".

Grath immediately formulated a plan in his head. They had to finish these humans first before the next group of humans came. Grath, with his plasma rifle in his right hand, and his sidearm in his left hand, charged out to the humans, shooting plasma bolts, and shouting war cries.

Grath survived long enough to actually manage to jump over the human's cover, and engaged the humans in close combat.

Most of the humans were too weak to even scratch Grath, however they had the advantage of numbers, and soon Grath's shields were down.

However, just as Grath thought that he was finished, Grath heard more war cries as Elites followed his lead and charged at the enemy. The Elites, as one unstoppable force, tore the humans to shreds. However, it was not without loss. The humans, however physically weak, had probably already had a plan just in case this happened. Half of the humans would engage the elites in close combat fighting with whatever makeshift weapons they had, while the other half would be firing from a distance.

The elites weren't expecting this, so many of them were killed before a few broke of the close combat fighting to kill the humans that were firing from a distance.

Grath surveyed the end result of the firefight. There were many of his fallen comrades, but even more fallen humans.

"Quickly!" Grath shouted. "Get behind cover! More humans are on the way. If we can make use of these cover the humans were using, we could easily take the next group of humans!".

Grath crouched behind a rectangular shaped stone jutting out from the ground. These stones were very unique. They were only seen on Forerunner structures, and seemed to be commonly used by the Forerunners to create things. It was strong, and could take many bullets, and even plasma shots without breaking apart.

"Their coming, Grath." Vrawl said over the radio.

And true to Vrawl's word, a group of thirty humans appeared around a corner.

"Kill them!" One elite shouted as the big group of forty elites, shielded by cover and their energy shields, started shooting plasma at the startled humans.

The humans were not even protected by armor; they only wore plain grey uniforms.

"Ambush! Retreat!" One of the humans shouted.

Grath noticed the retreat, and shouted for the elites to give chase.

"They're retreating!".

"Follow them!".

The Humans ran, some of them running backwards and firing, while some others just dropped their weapons and ran.

Either way, most of the humans were killed before they reached the main force, which was stationed outside the door Vrawl earlier mentioned, while the remaining humans only survived by running fast enough, or by pure chance.

It was here where the most number of casualties were inflicted in this battle. There was no cover for both sides, and the firefight was brutal.

Grath sidestepped as several bullets slammed into the wall where he had just been not a moment ago. Grath fired a few shots from his plasma pistol, then jumped and rolled away from a human fragmentation grenade before it could explode.

Bullets struck Grath in the chest, but his energy shields protected him from the impact. Grath looked at the direction of where the bullets came from, and caught the sight of his attacker reloading his weapon. Grath growled, then charged at the reloading human, while simultaneously firing his plasma pistol.

Unfortunately, his anger clouded his judgement. Grath did not think through his plan, and when he ran to his target, bullets from all sides hit him. Before Grath could make a move, his shields were depleted.

Grath turned to retreat, but only managed to take a few steps before he felt excruciating pain in his back as a bullets struck him.

* * *

><p>Nihai' dropped flat on the floor. He knew that, to the other elites, he looked like he was acting dead, and would probably be disgraced just because the act was cowardly. But in truth Nihai' was not acting dead, but merely dropping because a sniper had taken out the elite fighting beside him, andNihai' would have joined him in death if he wasn't on the floor right now.<p>

While on the floor, Nihai' shouted over his radio "Vrawl! Vrawl, are you there?".

"Yeah. What do you need?".

"There's a sniper somewhere! I need you to kill him, unless we'll be having a lot of casualties on our side.".

"I'll look." Vrawl said.

Nihai', now on the ground, spotted something that nobody else had. There was a sort of metal hook that seemed to be jutting out from the ground a few meters away from his position, where nobody was fighting at.

Nihai' crawled over to the metal hook, getting hit by a few bullets every once in a while while on the way.

Nihai' finally reached the metal hook. But he couldn't inspect it much, as he was laying on the ground._ I''l have to wait for Vrawl to kill the sniper before i can stand._ Just as those thoughts came into his head, Nihai' saw a thin purple beam lance through the sky, and a moment later saw a body drop from a tree outside the outpost.

"Got him." Vrawl's voice crackled over the radio. "He was hiding in a tree.".

Nihai' stood up and looked at the metal ring. The metal ring was connected to a square shaped piece of wood. Then Nihai' realized what it was._ A trapdoor._ Several bullets flew past his head, reminding him that he was still in a battle zone. Hastily, Nihai' pulled the metal hook, and the trapdoor flew open.

Nihai' looked inside. It was too dark to see, and Nihai' contemplated about jumping inside but then decided to search for something to drop inside so he could estimate how long of a fall it would be.

However, Nihai' was forced to jump inside when bullets started firing at his direction.

The drop was relatively short; he guessed it could have only been a five meters drop. Nihai' looked around. He was in a small room illuminated by a dim blue light. The surrounding walls were made of the same material as the other structures on Halo, and on the wall in the other side of the room, there was several buttons blinking with different colored lights.

_It's a control panel of some sort._ Nihai' thought to himself. He checked his backpack. There was the makeshift radio, and some cables that were needed to make the signal strong enough to reach Sangheilios.

Nihai' walked towards the other side of the room. He inspected the panel, and found that some of his cables could work with it. He attached the cables to the radio and the panel. He fiddled with the radio for a while not sure how to use it.

Suddenly, there was a crashing sound coming from behind him. Nihai' spun around quickly, rifle raised. Nihai' could see an elite, which was a very injured Grath, struggling to get up while a human with a pistol was onto of him, repeatedly hitting him with the pistol.

The human seemed to have noticed Nihai', as it rolled of Grath's back, as Nihai' started to fire. Nihai's aiming wasn't half bad, but this human was nimble and accurate; dodging his plasma shots while shooting Nihai' several times, but not enough to bring down his energy shields.

Nihai' growled, and then resorted to throwing a plasma grenade, which the human dodged. However, it estimated wrongly how far the blast radius was, which knocked him down and probably burning him a little. Nihai' took the chance, and fired his rifle at him, effectively killing it.

Nihai' walked to Grath and helped him up.

"Are you all right?" Nihai' asked.

"I don't think so." Grth said as he showed Nihai' his back. His back was bloodied, and there was at least seven bullet holes.

"That's bad. Can you walk?" Nihai' asked.

"Yeah.".

"How about using the makeshift radio?" Nihai' asked, gesturing to the other side of the room.

Grath froze for a while, which gave Nihai' hope that the radio could be used, then Grath shook his head.

"Only Vrawl knows how to.".

"Well, then lets go up, and call Vrawl here." Nihai' said.

"But how do we exactly go up?".

Nihai' stared up at the square hole where the trapdoor was. "Good question.".

* * *

><p>Vrawl 'Faldaree looked around through the scope of the beam rifle. <em>Looks like they're doing well. <em>The remaining humans had fled through the door underground, and the elites gave chase. They left only the Spec-Ops elites, who they probably deemed to precious to lose in an all out firefight, which was not what the Spec-Ops was used for.

_This area is secure. _Vrawl thought to himself.

Vrawl got up, and placed the beam rifle on his back. He walked to the edge of the cliff, and then slid all the way down. The cliff, however, was more bumpy and filled with stones of different shapes and sizes, which caused his descent to be more uncomfortable then he thought it would be.

Vrawl walked in the outpost, and followed the trail of bodies to where the remaining Spec-Ops were all waiting. Vrawl looked around, but could not find Grath or Nihai'. However, he had found Su'laart.

"Have you seen Grath and Nihai'?" Vrawl asked Su'laart.

Su'laart shrugged.

Vrawl went to the other twelve Spec-Ops agents, asking them if they'd seen Grath or Nihai'. One had said that Grath was last seen struggling with a human. But other than that no one else knew anything.

_Could they have fallen in battle?_ Vrawl thought. Vrawl frantically searched the fallen bodies, hoping not to find their bodies amongst the dead. But they weren't there.

Vrawl let out a sigh. "I give up." Vrawl then let his feet give way, and he landed on the floor on his back, looking at the sky.

But suddenly, a thin white line appeared across the sky where his head had been while standing.

Vrawl sat up fast. He looked around. All he could see was a flurry of movements. Everyone was running around, shooting at something he couldn't even see. One elite suddenly fell several meters away, a combat knife stuck in his skull. Then another body dropped, this time closer.

Vrawl jumped to his feet, and aimed his rifle at whatever he perceived as the enemy; but tnot shooting until he was sure.

To add to more noise, his radio suddenly turned on, and Nihai' was talking on the other end. He was saying something about the power source, and that he didn't know how to use the makeshift radio.

Vrawl had so many questions, yet so little time. Where was this power source? Where are you? Is Grath with you? Was he injured by the human earlier? Where was this human now anyway?

"Just find a way! I can't help you, I'm under attack!" Vrawl shouted back, before turning his radio off. Vrawl looked around now. In front of him there was another two elites, looking confused as to where the attacker was. To his right there was an armless elite, cradling his wound on the floor. To his left there was the body of an elite that seemed to have had his mandibles removed. Suddenly, a figure burst in between the two confused elites in front of him, simultaneously killing them both in a motion too fast for Vrawl's eyes to see. The figure jumped on Vrawl, pushing him onto the ground. Vrawl looked up at his attacker, and realized that it was a demon, and Vrawl found it's helmeted gaze to be unsettling.

What was more unsettling, however, was that there was a knife in it's hand, which was already on it's way down. Vrawl intercepted it in time, by catching the demon's wrist, then pulled the demon off him.

Vrawl rolled to his left, further away from the demon. Worried the demon might already be upon him again, Vrawl hastily got up. Vrawl, wondering why the demon hadn't been upon him, and cutting him into pieces, looked up. The scene before him was filled with gore and the blood of his own kind. There was body parts laying everywhere.

The only thing still moving, was Su'laart, and the demon. They were engaged in hand to hand combat.

Su'laart was sending a flurry of punches at the demon, and the demon was blocking them all with ease. In a sudden movement, the demon sent his head forward, giving Su'laart a headbutt.

The headbutt sent Su'laart staggering backwards and stopped Su'laart's flurry of punches. Vrawl ran forward to help. Vrawl charged at the demon, who had his back facing him. Just as Vrawl reached striking distance, the demon turned around, and kicked Vrawl all in the same motion.

Vrawl coughed out purple blood. The kick was a hard one. Anger swept over him. Vrawl roared and charged once more, this time while Su'laart was fighting with the demon. The demon gave an uppercut to Su'laart, but failed to turn in time to dodge Vrawl's charge. Vrawl made use of his claws, slashing through the demon's suit at it's arms. Blood spurted out of it's wounds, but it seemed not to even notice.

The demon grabbed the arm Vrawl used to slash it, and spun Vrawl around so that Vrawl had his back facing the demon. The demon jumped on Vrawl, and Vrawl's legs buckled under the weight of the demon. Vrawl crashed to the ground, headfirst. Before Vrawl could even grunt, the demon pushed his head deeper into the ground, summoning a groan from Vrawl. Vrawl heard the _click _of a combat knife leaving it's sheath, but before the combat knife could be brought down against his skull like what the demon did to so many others, his body was relieved of the demon's weight as Su'laart tackled the demon.

* * *

><p>Collin-427 and Matthew-494 sat on a thick branch of a tree. They chose this particular tree because it was tall, and had thick branches which would support their weight.<p>

"How's Benedict doing down there?" Matthew asked.

Collin looked through the scope of his sniper. "He's finished most of them before they knew what was killing them off. Only two left now.".

"Is he having trouble with this two?" Matthew said, putting his helmet back on.

Collin shrugged. "Hard to tell. Those two seem to be quite tough, but then again Benedict might just be having some fun with them.".

Matthew sighed. "We don't have time for this.".

"Collin turned to look at Matthew. "He's team leader you know. He gets to do what he wants.".

"So? I'm quote sure that I'd finish these bunch of elites within a minute.".

"He trashed you in every test there was.".

"Whatever.".

Collin looked back through the sniper scope. Benedict was choking one of them with his left hand, while fighting the other one off with his other hand.

"Maybe he's having too much fun." Collin said. "We better go down there.".

Matthew and Collin jumped off the tree and landed down beside their weaponry. Collin picked up an assault rifle and shotgun, while Matthew picked up the standard issue pistol and battle rifle.

"Let's go."

* * *

><p>Vrawl kicked his legs around. The demon's grip was tight, and Vrawl couldn't do anything about it. Su'laart was being thrown around like trash, even though the demon was only using a single hand to fend off Su'laart.<p>

Black spots started to appear in his vision. The darkness was threatening to take over. Vrawl was falling unconscious. Vrawl shook his head to clear the darkness, but it didn't work.

Just as Vrawl thought he was going to fall unconscious, plasma shots flew through the air.

The demon let go of Vrawl, and Vrawl landed on his knees, gasping for air. The elites from below were back, presumably after killing the humans that they chased down below. But either way, Vrawl was happy to see them. The group of twenty or so remaining elites surrounded the demon.

Su'laart picked Vrawl up and retreated into the ranks of the other elites. The demon only had a pistol, which was hooked on his utility belt. The demon had probably sensed his low chances, and started to raise his hands in what seemed to be a sign of surrender.

The elites, probably content with capturing the demon, let their aims falter and they went back into a relaxed state, as one elite minor walked cautiously to the demon. Before the minor could do anything, however, bullets ripped through the young warrior, instantly killing him. An elite major turned to where the bullets were coming from, and was greeted by a shotgun blast in point blank range into his face.

The demon which they had 'captured' drew it's pistol, as the two newly arrived demons came in with their guns blazing, and amidst all the chaos, Vrawl could only hope that Grath and Nihai' had successfully called for reinforcements, as all hell broke loose.

* * *

><p>Atson 'Samarai walked through the military base with his friend, Eesa Ar'varm hurriedly. While meeting with the Sangheili Councillors, Atson had received a report from his trusted Spec-Ops officer, Cksi Nar L'olor that a call for help was received from Halo.<p>

The council had allowed Atson to take a fleet to Halo, and after a bit of persuasion, had allowed Eesa to go too.

They had already given the orders for a fleet to assemble in orbit four hours ago, and immediately troops boarded ships, and mechanics brought in weapons and ammo. Several ships were already waiting for him, ready in orbit.

However, Atson and Eesa had agreed that this mission was dangerous, so they had called in several veterans who had experience on Halo to reprise their old ranks.

Atson had already made battle plans, and would further discuss the plans with his officers on board his Flagship, the _Destroyer of Worlds. _But now, Atson had to plan on how they would crush the human's fleet, destroy the Flood threat on Halo's surface, deal with the demons, and get the Arbiter back into safety, if he was still alive.

The _Destroyer of Worlds _was outfitted with glassing equipment, so that in case the flood threat gets out of hand, they could burn the whole surface of Halo.

Suddenly, an elite Ultra stopped Atson and Eesa. Atson recognized this Ultra as the one that had stopped him earlier. Lysi 'Rea'umai gave a short bow to the two respected warriors.

"Your Excellencies," Lysi said. "Your Flagship has reached orbit and a Phantom Dropship is waiting at the landing pad to take you there.". Lysi then gestured to a door. "Follow me please.".

Eesa waved his hand. "Thank you for relaying this information to us, but we do not need to be escorted to the landing pads.".

The Ultra, head still bowed, said "But your Excellency, I have been given orders from the High Council to escort you there, since they have posted me to your Flagship, they told me I might as well bring you there.".

Eesa gave a soft growl. Atson knew that Eesa hated to be treated like he cannot take care of himself. "Very well, lead the way.".


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8: The Sangheili Counter-measures **

Eesa Ar'varm parried the stab from Atson. They were on the training grounds of the _Destroyer of Worlds_. The training grounds was empty, as most of the crew on the flagship were asleep, and if they were not asleep, were on sentry duty.

To prepare for Halo, the whole fleet had adopted the day and night cycle as observed in the Halo installation they were traveling to. During the day, activities continued as per normal. However at night, only sentries were supposed to be outside their rooms..

Eesa's long time friend, Atson 'Samarai, was helping his friend get back into proper physical fitness in preparation for Halo.

Eesa rolled to the side, away from a downward slash. However the slash was just a ruse, as Atson strode quickly to Eesa's position, and knocked the energy sword of his hand just as Eesa was recovering from the roll.

Eesa's blade deactivated as it fell to the floor. Atson held up the blade to Eesa's neck, then shook his head. "Eesa? What happened to your combat prowess?" Atson said jokingly as he deactivated his owns blade.

Eesa growled. "Apparently I have lost it.". Even though he knew that Atson's remark was a joke, Eesa couldn't help but feel that Atson's remarked had sparked some anger within him. Eesa quickly quelled his anger, then picked up the hilt of his sword.

"One more time.".

Eesa activated his sword, then let loose a flurry of slashes. Each time Atson had easily parried his charge. However, a parry that Atson performed required Atson to sweep his blade in a long, sweeping arc. This left Atson's whole chest and midsection exposed, and Eesa took the chance to send a hard front kick to the exposed area.

The kick sent his opponent backwards, however Eesa could not take advantage of this, as Atson had lashed out with his blade to protect himself from any attacks that Eesa would have followed up with.

Atson regained his balance and sttod up straight. Atson deactivated his sword, and Eesa followed suit.

"Great job, looks like your getting your old combat abilities back." Atson said.

Eesa smiled. "Yes, but I don't think that at my current state, I would be able to take on a demon.".

Atson frowned. "No, no you won't." Atson's frown suddenly disappeared, and his out curved into a smile. "But whoever said results would appear overnight?".

Eesa was about to say something else, however a siren sounded through the ship. Eesa immediately recognized the siren, and so had Atson. They were exiting slipspace. Atson and Eesa ran to the bridge, several rooms away, typed in the security code, and then Atson turned something on in the control panel.

Eesa watched as Atson bent down closer to the speaker attached on the control panel, and ordered the crew members to report to their respective stations.

After a few minutes, the _Destroyer of Worlds_ had exited slipspace, the sight of Halo, and a human fleet, that rivaled the size of Atson's fleet, greeted them.

Atson looked out from his viewport, then slumped back in his chair, eyes locked into the fleet before them, as if devising a plan, and a backup plan in case the first plan were to fail.

Eesa stood in silence, knowing that disturbing Atson at this time would be a bad idea.

* * *

><p>Vrawl 'Faldaree collapsed onto the grass, his body too exhausted to go even a step further. His shoulder ached from the big slash wound he had received during his escape with Su'laart, and they were later joined by a severely wounded Grath, and Nihai'.<p>

Su'laart sat down on the grass, leaning on a tree, and Graht and Nihai' followed what Vrawl had done by falling on their backs.

Vrawl just looked up at the sky for what he'd perceived as seconds, but may very well have been minutes. Vrawl didn't have time to think about anything earlier, but now, Vrawl had this lethargic feeling that seemed to distort his sense of time. Suddenly he heard Grath say something.

"They killed them all." Grath said. Vrawl looked at Grath. He was still looking at the sky. "Those demons…They killed them all.".

Vrawl was very aware of that fact. The three demons had worked with precision, speed, and efficiency that Vrawl had never seen in any opponent before. Fighting against the demons was useless. It was like trying to fight water. They seemed to evade and dodge their plasma fire, and if one would land a punch on them, they would have easily taken the blow, like how the lone demon Vrawl and Su'laart had been fighting at first seemed to take Vrawl's slash like it was a pathetic scratch.

However, that had been days ago, but whether it had been many days, just a few, or even just one day, Vrawl did not know. There were only some other elites that were lucky enough to escape with Vrawl and his team.

But they were quickly killed by squads of black-armored troopers, that were dropped by their ships in pods. Vrawl looked back at the sky. The Human ships were faintly visible. The humans had received reinforcements, and the ships in orbit had been sending down many drop pods containing these elite marines.

The silence continued, until the sun over Halo went down. Vrawl knew that this might as well be the end. But suddenly, Nihai' said something.

"Have any of you bothered to check the Battle Net recently?".

Suddenly, Vrawl realized that there could be some hope left. Scolding himself for giving up hope before he had properly went through all his options, Vrawl sat up, as had Grath, while Su'laart simply stared at Nihai' from where he was sitting, and listened.

"Why? Does the Battle Net state anything? " Grath said hopefully. "Like any nearby friendly forces? Or is the Arbiter found?".

Nihai' sat up too. Nihai' was grinning widely. "Even better. Our call for help was heard. A fleet led by the renowned Commander of Special Operations, Atson 'Samarai has just exited slipspace.".

Vrawl was shocked. "You mean that our reinforcements are actually just in the space above Halo even as we speak?".

"Thats not all," Nihai' said, nodding. "They are currently engaging the main force of the Human's fleet. There are already reports from some elites scattered across Halo, that they are currently being picked up by Phantom dropships from the fleet above us.".

"Also," Nihai' added "We are supposed to broadcast our current location, and a Phantom Dropship will come to pick us up.".

Vrawl's spirits were immediately lifted.

_That's great! _Vrawl was about to exclaim. But before he had the chance to, an unholy shriek filled the air. Everyone sat in silence for a moment. Then many infection forms started flooding the place. Vrawl was on his feet in a second, shooting the tiny infections forms with his carbine.

Su'laart and Nihai' stood, firing their plasma rifles, while Grath fired his plasma pistol.

"Nihai'!" Vrawl had to shout to be heard over the sounds of their plasma discharges and the pops of the parasite. "Broadcast our location, call for help! Tell them that we need to get out of here now, and that we are under attack by the Flood, and are running low on ammo!".

Nihai', not wasting time, didn't reply, but simply retreated to the middle of the circle that Vrawl and the rest had made as soon as they were set upon by the flood to do his job, a very basic tactical move, taught in the first week of Spec-Ops training.

Vrawl fired his carbine a few more times, this time at the newly arrived Combat-Forms. The parasites lodged into the chest of these abominations were easy targets. Many combat forms fell, all because of their single, but deadly weakness.

Vrawl checked his magnetic utility belt, and found that he only had a few rounds of carbine ammo left.

"We can't hold out here for too long!" Grath shouted. "We are running low on ammo!".

Vrawl knew he was right. But he also knew that if they moved, their rear would be exposed.

"A Phantom is on the way now, we just have to stay put." Nihai' said, rushing to Vrawl's side to help him fend off the parasites.

The carbine was effective against combat forms, but did little against a whole swarm of parasites which needed a fast shooting weapon, not a precision based one.

"We need a little help here!" Grath shouted.

They were divided into two groups of two, Nihai' and Vrawl were defending their rear, while Grath and Su'laart were at the front.

"We can't help you now," Vrawl shouted back. "We're hardly holding them off back here.".

Then Vrawl had an idea. He switched his carbine for his beam rifle. Then he took aim at a nearby tree. Several shot lanced out from his beam rifle, striking through the tree. Soon the tree came crashing down on the flood, killing many, and blocking the parasites from coming for a few minutes, or at least Vrawl had estimated.

"Come on, let's go help Grath and Su'laart." Vrawl said to Nihai' as he switched back to his carbine.

* * *

><p>Lysi 'Rea'umai checked his grenades and extra batteries once more. The Phantom suddenly lurched downward, which threw everyone one board slightly off balance. Lysi had been given orders to accompany a Phantom, with three other minors to extract some of his allies stranded on Halo. However, the Phantoms would usually only have two minors and a major accompanying it during the past few extractions. This change confused Lysi, but he found out later that the extraction point was swarmed with Flood, at least according to the report.<p>

"Sorry for the sudden move." the Phantom's pilot said. "I had to dodge another one of this pods the humans were sending down there.".

The fight in space was still raging, and though the Sangheili were outnumbered two to one, the technology the humans were using were outdated. The Fleet Commander, Eesa Ar'varm, reassured his men that they would be fighting on the ground, once the human fleet was annihilated.

"We're close now." The pilot said. "Standby.".

Lysi looked at his minor companions, then started to brief them on what they would do.

"When we arrive at the LZ, we jump out, and give covering fire while our allies down there get into the Phantom. Then we run back in the Phantom too. Is that clear?".

The Phantom started to slow, and Lysi could hear the shadow turrets attached on the underside of the Phantom begin to fire, joining the noise created by other plasma weaponry.

The Phantom stopped, and the Pilot gave them the signal to disembark. Lysi jumped off, followed closely behind by the three minors.

As soon as they touched the ground, all four began to fire their plasma rifles at the horde of Flood Infection and Combat forms coming to them.

"Go!" Lysi shouted at the four black armored Spec-Ops Elites, who didn't wait for Lysi to tell them a second time. Lysi looked back, and saw the four Spec-Ops Elites already going up the gravity lift.

"Ok, they're safe, now let's go!" Lysi and the three minors dashed towards the gravity lift and to the safety of the Phantom.

Once inside, Lysi looked back at his minor companions. Then he noticed only two of them. "Where did the other one go?" Lysi questioned the two minors.

"He was jumped by a parasite as we ran for the Phantom, Excellency.".

"Very well. Once we get back on the _Destroyer of Worlds, _send a message to his father and mother about his death.".

Lysi turned around, and faced the four rescued Elites.

"Perfect timing there." One of them said. "My carbine had just ran out of ammo when you showed up."

Lysi simply nodded. He was briefed about this extraction, and was told that this team was designated 'Shadow Patrol'. Lysi was told to tell them that their Patrol leader was safe, and was extracted earlier this morning.

"I was told to tell you that your leader, I think his name was Kra'art, is safe. He was extracted earlier, and is waiting aboard out flagship for your arrival." Lysi told the Elites he had just extracted.

"You mean Kra'art?" One of the black armored Elite with only a plasma pistol asked.

Lysi tried his best to recall the name of the Patrol leader whose extraction was overseen by him, but failed to remember correctly.

"Probably. I can't remember.".

The rest of the trip had been spent in silence. Lysi felt the Phantom swerve left to right, dodging the fire from the Human's fleet. The two opposing fleets were still locked in space combat. Lysi hated the sense of helplessness whenever he was under fire while riding on a Phantom.

However, Lysi had already made this trip across no man's land several times, and was confident that the Phantom's pilot was skilled enough to dodge anything that may be coming this way. Even if anything hit them, the Phantom could obviously hold it's own for a while before blowing into millions of pieces in a bright blue explosion.

The Phantom slowed as they began to dock in the hangar of the _Destroyer of Worlds._

"You'll have to go to the bridge to get debriefed along with all the other Elites we extracted today." Lysi told the Spec-Ops Elite as they were getting of the Phantom.

Then he turned to one of the Minors, and told him to request for a replacement for the minor that was lost earlier, and told the other one to send a message to the dead warrior's family, to notify them about the death.

As the minors hurried off to fulfill their duties, Lysi closed his eyes and waited for a next assignment.

* * *

><p>Vrawl 'Faldaree walked through a narrow hallway. Nihai' and Grath were whispering something to each other, and Su'laart was still keeping quiet as usual. They had been relieved to be back into a place that gave them the sense of security they had so badly needed, and were excited as they arrived at this big flagship.<p>

Nihai' and Grath's conversation died down as they took the gravity lift to the bridge. The ascent took a few seconds, and they walked through a door at the top. They were met with about two dozen more elites, at least a dozen wearing black, and half a dozen red armored majors, and the rest were minors. And in an elevated platform was a towering figure in an armor that signified his rank as the Commander of Special Operations. It was the famed Atson Sam'arai, the distinguished swordsman.

As soon as the doors behind them closed again, Atson Sam'arai stood from his chair. "Greetings, I think I need not introduce myself. First of all, let me congratulate you for surviving down there in Halo alone, under the constant threat from the Parasite, the Sentinel warriors, and the Humans." Atson's voice boomed.

"It was a feat to even accomplish what you have done, but you have even managed to establish contact with Sanghelios, and call for reinforcements!". At this point, some of the Elites were confused, as they were probably unaware of the fact that a small elite strike team had cut through a human outpost to call for help.

"For this," Atson continued. "You will all be rewarded a very long rest cycle, and during the rest cycle, you are permitted to roam freely aboard this ship.".

Vrawl felt relief flood him. He would be needing lots of sleep.

"However, after the rest cycle, you will go down to help in a battle. I will not specify on the detail, but the Flood and the Sentinels have massed together in a large group, and we already have a detachment of Elites down there, plus there's a platoon of stray Humans that were hiding there. That makes it a three way fight, and we need all the help we can get. But for now just rest.".

And with that, Atson dismissed everyone from the bridge.

Vrawl walked out of the bridge, pondering to himself where he could possibly find Kra'art.

As he was thinking, a familiar voice was heard.

"Hey Vrawl!".

Vrawl looked up and scanned for the source of the voice. Then he saw Kra'art walking toward him, with T'ras behind.

Grath, Nihai' and Su'laart saw this too, and they all ran to Kra'art and T'ras .

"Kra'art! T'ras!".

Everyone was laughing, happily congratulating each other for surviving. After a bit of a reunion, Kra'art finally explained they got here.

"After you left," Kra'art explained. "It was quiet. But then they had probably found us, and there was a continuous wave of Parasites and Sentinels. We managed to hold them off, but eventually someone had to die. And so after the first Elite was jumped by a parasite, T'ras awoke, and we had T'ras replace him.".

"What a stroke of luck." Grath said.

Kra'art nodded. "Yeah, but more came, and soon it was just me and T'ras left standing. When we thought we were finished, news on the BattleNet said that there was reinforcements up in the space above us, and instantly I knew you guys were alive and had almost thought you had failed.".

For a few moments, there was silence. Nobody knew what to say. Then Vrawl searched the Battle Net for any news. It was mostly the occasional calls for help, but Vrawl finally found something interesting.

"Parasite and Sentinels massing together." Vrawl read out loud. "Units have been deployed to fight the Parasites where they are gathering, but it seems that this is no ordinary Rally Point. It seems they are massing here for one final attempt to hijack a ship, and escape confinement on Halo and infect the galaxy.

Kra'art nodded. "Since we got here, we have glassed any location that has been tainted by the parasite. However, when the Parasites started to gather, we sent in a Spec-Ops unit to deal with the relatively small group of Flood. However, now the Parasite have trapped us, we cannot glass the area since our brothers are down there, and we can't extract them due to the high risks of Flood contamination. All we can do is drop more and more units. But the fighting is heavy, and there are also rumors that the Humans have joined in the fight for that part of Halo.".

"And so," T'ras said. "The Fleet Commander has told us that our unit will be called upon to fight alongside another twelve units that will be dropped off in two days. We have been told that we should rest for this two days.".

Grath shrugged. "I don't know about you, but i'm gonna find something to eat." With that, Grath walked off.

"Oh, and before I forget," Kra'art said. "I need you to come with me and speak to the Fleet Commander for a minute." Kra'art gestured at Nihai' to follow him, and they both disappeared through a few doors.

Su'laart just simply walked back to the quiet of the dorms Shadow Patrol was given.

Now, only T'ras and Vrawl was left. T'ras turned to Vrawl, grinning. "Now my friend, we have a lot of catching up to do.".

* * *

><p>Atson 'Samarai sat, thinking about the strategies needed to overcome his now retreating enemies. So far, his fleet had been successful in pushing back the Human fleet, but they were now stuck in a standstill. The Humans wouldn't give ground, and it would be foolish to give ground.<p>

His thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a chime. He pressed a button and the doors behind him slid open. Two dark armored Sangheili accompanied by Lysi 'Rea'umai, the white Ultra, walked in. He remembered one of the dark armored operatives as Kra'art, whom he had personally debriefed after surviving with only one other survivor for weeks, holding off at a camp after sending his best warriors on a mission to call for help. Atson made a mental note to personally commend those who had accomplished the task of calling for help.

"These two wish to speak with you privately, Excellency." Lysi said.

"Hmm, very well." Atson replied. "You may leace Lysi.".

Lysi bowed and was about to go, when Atson remembered something Eesa had asked him to do.

"Wait.".

Lysi stopped and turned.

"Eesa wishes for you to help him in his training. So meet him at the sparring room, and bring your energy sword with you.".

"Yes Excellency." Lysi said, bowed once more, then went.

Atson turned his attention two the other two. "What is your business here?".

The two dropped into a low bow, then the one called Kra'art spoke.

"Your excellency, I have come to request a transfer.".

"Transfer?" Atson asked. "For whom?".

Kra'art gestured to the other Spec-Ops warrior beside him.

"My friend, Nihai'. He lost his original patrol and I had temporarily put him in mine. I wish to make the changes that I had made permanent.".

Atson though about this for awhile. A lot had to be done to transfer someone to another squad. He would have to send a message to the Sangheili council to change the official records, then he would have to change the roster. Atson cast another glance at both. _But I guess they did well on the battlefield, I should reward their efforts by approving of their request._

"Approved." Atson said.

"Thank you Excellency." Both said in unison, then they bowed and quickly left.

Atson looked at the display screen. He checked if there was any ongoing transmissions or anything else he had to do. He found nothing._If there's nothing else to do, I'll just set to work changing the roster. _Atson thought to himself.

First, Atson sent a request to the Sangheili High Council back at Sangheilios to change the records. The beep from the Display Screen confirmed that the message was sent. Now, he had to change the roster.

Atson was just finishing up with the roster, when there was an urgent beep from the screen. Atson frowned. It was a transmission from one of the Majors fighting down at Halo.

"What is it?" Atson asked, opening the transmission.

The Major's face appeared in the screen, his red armor almost completely covered by dirt. Atson could see heavy fighting in the background, there were many fallen trees too.

"Excellency! I-" The major was cut off for a while when he ducked from an exploding Banshee bomb nearby. "I don't think that at this rate we'll hold out for two more days! We need reinforcements by tomorrow!".

Atson frowned._ Who was this Major to call for reinforcements without the permission of his Ultra? If he had received permission, the Ultra in charge would have personally been talking to him right now._ Atson though to himself. "Where is your Ultra in charge?".

"The crimson armored Major bowed his head in respect for a moment, then said: "He died a noble death in leading a suicide charge to push the Flood, Sentinels, and Human forces back. May we win this battle in his name.".

Atson growled. He knew the family of that Ultra. He had a wife, and a hatchling that he hadn't had the chance to see yet. Atson would have to personally see to the compensation of the loss of a father figure in that hatchling's life.

"You will receive your reinforcements." Atson declared, standing up. "I will lead an Ultra, a Royal Zealot, two teams of Special Operations warriors, and twelve combat units down tomorrow at sunrise.".

The Major looked shocked. "B-But your excellency, there is no need for you to do that. Who will take control of the fleet if you come down here?".

Atson looked at his smaller screen by the side of his chair. He assigned an experienced Zealot to fill in for him tomorrow. "There are plenty of Zealots who have experience commanding a fleet. I will just assign one to take over me.".

Before the major could protest any further, Atson cut off the transmission.

He looked at the monitors. It was currently the rest cycle for the Spec Ops teams that had just arrived. He looked at his screen again, then assigned Lysi to wake two of the designated teams after the rest cycle, then tell them to get ready to touch down on Halo.

Lysi would soon receive a message that would be auto generated to notify him about his assignment.

Atson also sent a message to Eesa, telling him to rest up for now. _There will be lots of spilt blood tomorrow. I just hope it won't be our blood._


End file.
